Portugal'S "Shoe Making Capital" Set Chinese As A Compulsory Course In Primary Schools.

Madeira, the northern city of Joao, stipulates that all public primary schools in the three or four grade must offer Chinese courses and include Chinese courses in compulsory courses.

This is Portugal.

The city's move is intended to enhance the local young generation's advantage over the European counterparts in competing for the Chinese market.

Portugal is a big European shoe making power.

With the development of emerging countries,

Gradually abandon the low-end market, the main high-end market, becoming the only luxury footwear exporter after Italy.

Although China has a "world factory", it has an annual output of about 10 billion pairs of shoes, which is the world's largest shoe maker, but this does not prevent Portuguese high-end shoes from entering the Chinese market.

Statistics show that Portugal exports to China.

The number of shoes was 10 thousand pairs in 2011 and 170 thousand in 2013.

Joao, director of the Madeira Municipal Education Commission, said: "Chinese is the key to open the world's largest market". Dilma Nantes

Joao, the mayor of Madeira, said in an interview with Xinhua earlier that as the Chinese economy grew more and more, Portugal and China became more and more closely connected, and Chinese became more and more important.

Local primary school students may have more opportunities to cooperate with China when they grow up, so it is very meaningful to join Chinese classes in primary schools.

Chinese class is quite interesting for local pupils.

Eduardo, 9, said, "I want to see the Great Wall."

Daniela, his classmate, said, "Chinese is not too difficult to learn."

Their Chinese teacher smiled and said, "they are young and learn very fast."

Mario Tavares, the boss of shoemaking companies, believes that the government's measures to set Chinese as a compulsory course will give children more advantages in competing with their peers in the future.

These Chinese speaking pupils can be competent for sale or management in shoemaking enterprises in the future.

"China may become our main market one day," Tavares said.