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Overview

Tianjin Provincial Government provides grant for Luban Workshop at Durban University of Technology (Linked to Record ID#88544)

Commitment Year•2019Country of Activity•South AfricaDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•South AfricaSector•EducationFlow Type•Grant

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
May 12, 2019
Start (actual)
May 6, 2019
End (actual)
Dec 16, 2019

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

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The workshop is reported to be located at DUT's Ritson campus: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/712499215

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Funding agencies

Government Agencies

  • Unspecified Chinese Government Institution

Receiving agencies

Government Agencies

  • Durban University of Technology (DUT)

Implementing agencies

Government Agencies

  • Durban University of Technology (DUT)

Miscellaneous Agency Types

  • Tianjin Vocational Institute

Loan desecription

Tianjin Provincial Government provides grant for Luban Workshop at Durban University of Technology (Linked to Record ID#88544)

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On December 16, 2019, China's Tianjin Vocational Institute (TVI) officially opened the Luban Workshop at South Africa's Durban University of Technology (DUT). All Luban Workshops are funded by the Provincial Government of Tianjin, which earmarked funds for the program. The value of the grant that supported this specific DUT Luban Workshop is unknown. In September 2018 at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, President Xi Jinping announced that China will build 10 Luban workshops in Africa to provide vocational and technical training to African youth. Luban is a famous Chinese structural engineer and the purpose of this project is to teach students high-end technical skills like 3D printing. From May 6 to 12, 2019, a delegation from DUT was invited to Tianjin, China to visit the Luban Workshop at TVI and the two sides subsequently committed to establishing one at DUT. In September 2019, the two sides created an implementation plan for two new labs at DUT, one for 3D printing and the other for narrowband (NB) internet-of-things (IOT). DUT would carry out the renovations and TVI would donate the equipment (see Record ID#88544).

Staff comments

1. The Chinese project title is 德班理工大学鲁班工坊 2. 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