From July 9 to July 11, the primary selection work of students for Sino-German small and medium enterprise (SME) operating managers training cooperation project (hereinafter short for MP training) completed successfully. 39 SME managers from all parts of the country accepted the interview by the expert group in Beijing, and then the first batch of students was selected. These students will receive pre-training in September.

MP training project based on Ms. Ou Xinqian, Vice Chairwoman of NDRC, and Hartmut Schauerte, Parliamentary Secretary of State of German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, signed the Memorandum of Understanding on China–Germany SME Operation and Management Personnel Training Cooperation during the ASEM SMEs Ministerial Meeting in October, 2007. This selection activity is China's first cooperation with the MP training project. Earlier, the German MP training project has had many successful practices for many years in Russia, Ukraine and other countries.

The people participating in the interview all came from the core management layer of SMEs, had a wealth of management experiences, and most of them were the founder and owner of enterprises. What was especially worth mentioning was most of these candidates had good oral English communication skills, and some of whom relied on the self-study to grasp English. They can improve their English language ability by using their spare time in the busy business management work, the spirit of whom won highly praise from the Selection Committee composing by the Chinese and foreign commissioners, and fully demonstrated China's new generation of entrepreneurs had the characters of high diathesis and international perspective.

Ms. Liang Yan, Deputy Director General of China's SME Department said that these managers of SMEs were the best in the same industry, whether there was a chance for them to participate in the joint training in Germany, the SME Department will establish a close relationship with them, created conditions as far as possible for these enterprises in the future MP training project or other training, constantly improved the quality of enterprise managers, supported these entrepreneurs to go abroad, developed new markets, and found cooperation partners.

According to arrangement by German, the expected project process was as follows: It will hold a centralized pre-training in China for two weeks in September, and then go to Germany for a month-long study and investigation in November. Pre-training will include German history, culture, economic summary, management studies, and German, etc. Experts from China and Germany will carry on concentrated instruction.

The selection committee of MP training project was composing by Ms. Liang Yan, Deputy Director General of China's SMEs Department, Mr. Tian Chuan, Director of Division of China's SMEs Department, Mr. Toschev, Director of Division of German Ministry of Economics and Technology, and Mr. Fitza, Commercial Counselor of Embassy of Germany in China, and etc. The full interview carried through English. China's executive institution was China Centre for Business Cooperation and Coordination (CCBCC), on the German side, the implementing agency was InWEnt, Capacity Building International. German officials were very pleased with the organization work of Chinese side, given the full confirmation to the quality of participants, and they expressed they will make great efforts to well organize the staff to take part in the German training.