Malawi's President Peter Mutharika on Friday led a delegation to the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

The president of UIBE Wang Jiaqiong met the delegation. Wang introducd his university's competitive disciplines, international cooperation and talents training. President Mutharika's visit to the UIBE offered a valuable opportunity to boost the school's exchanges and cooperation with African universities including those in Malawi, he said.

President Mutharika, having previously served as education minister when a Confucius institute was established by the UIBE and the University of Malawi, witnessed the exchanges and cooperation in the field of education between the two countries. He hoped Malawi and China could enhance long-term exchanges and cooperation between scholars and students from universities of both sides in the future and jointly cultivate outstanding talents.

Wang presented Mutharika with a report on China-Africa Development and Cooperation in New Era written by a research team of the UIBE and awarded the President of Malawi an honorary professorship with the university.

The Malawi leader then delivered a keynote address entitled "A choice from poverty to prosperity" at the university.

Malawi's First Lady Gertrude Mutharika, Chinese ambassador to Malawi Liu Hongyang and UIBE's vice president Zhao Zhongxiu attended the meeting.

Founded in 1951, UIBE is a multi-disciplinary national public research university specializing in economics, finance, management, law and foreign languages. According to ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009, the Beijing-based school topped five other economics and finance universities listed among China's top 100 universities of 2018. Currently, it has established partnerships with over 160 overseas universities and international organizations.