Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On October 15, 2021, a China-funded Luban workshop, or vocational institute, opened at the Plovdiv Agricultural University in Bulgaria. The workshop covered an area of 1,600 square meters and contained 4 laboratories. The workshop offers a masters degree in agricultural engineering and crop science and an undergraduate degree in cross-border e-commerce. In November 2019, the Tianjin University of Agriculture, Tianjin School of Economics and Trade, and Plovdiv Agricultural University in Bulgaria began to cooperate to build the Bulgarian Luban Workshop.
Staff comments
1. Luban Workshop (鲁班工坊) is a technical assistance program started by Tianjin's Vocational Institute in BRI countries. While it is an important Chinese foreign policy objective, the workshop is not funded through a specific fund or a government entity. Instead, it is heavily dependent on each project. While the Chinese government may directly fund some projects, Chinese SOEs or the specific vocational schools in Tianjin may fund others. As a result, AidData assumes an unspecified Chinese government agency has funded the project. For more information, please consult: https://www.tj.gov.cn/zwgk/szfwj/tjsrmzfbgt/202005/t20200519_2370529.html?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template and http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s5147/202112/t20211202_584025.html