Ｃｉｔｉｇｒｏｕｐ Ｄｏｎａｔｅｓ ｔｏ Ｓｕｐｐｏｒｔ Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ Ｔｅａｃｈｅｒｓ Ｉｎｎｏｖａｔｉｖｅ Ｔｅａｃｈｉｎｇ Ｃｏｍｐｅｔｉｔｉｏｎ ｉｎ Ｓｏｕｔｈｗｅｓｔｅｒｎ Ｃｈｉｎａ

On April 26， Citigroup of the U. S. and the CPAFFC jointly held a donation ceremony and a press conference for the Citigroup English Teachers’ Innovative Teaching Competition in the Southwest of China. Richard Stanley， CEO of Citigroup China， and Li Xiaolin， vice president of the CPAFFC， attended the event and made speeches.

At the ceremony， Citigroup announced that it donated RMB 865，000 to support the English teachers’ innovative teaching competition in southwestern China which aimed at improving English teaching skills in the southwestern areas and helping alleviate poverty through education in the poverty-stricken region. The CPAFFC will organize the competition which will have the participation of more than 100 English teachers from Guizhou， Guangxi， Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and autonomous region who have attended the Citigroup-sponsored English teachers training programme in the past four years. The competition is a follow-up pragramme of the training course， which was designed to provide an opportunity for the trainees to demonstrate their skills and have exchanges with one another so as to improve their innovative teaching ability.

In her speech， Vice President Li Xiaolin thanked Citigroup for its generous donation in support of the education development of the southwestern region of China， and hoped that it would continue to support the development of China’s cause of public good. CEO Stanley said， “We are strongly committed to applying the strength of Citygroup’s global reach and resources to better the lives of residents in those communities where we do business.” He believed that Citigroup’s success in China would be optimized through their contribution to the long-term prosperity of the country， and thus， they would be willing to make contributions. He regarded the programmes as really meaningful and thanked the CPAFFC for its efforts in the cooperation.

Since 2001， with the support of Citigroup， the CPAFFC has launched the English Teachers Training Programme in Guizhou， Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces and Guangxi Autonomous Region in southwestern China. In 2004 and 2005， Citigroup sponsored Citigroup China-U.S. Friendship English Libraries in 11 middle schools in Guizhou and Guangxi， bringing to them all kinds of English books and audiovisual appliances and providing the schools where many trainees were working with English teaching materials， which benefited nearly 20，000 students.

The English Teachers’ Innovative Teaching Competition includes the initial competitions and the final competition. The initial competitions will be held in Guizhou， Guangxi， Yunnan and Sichuan from 2006 to 2007， and the final one will be held in Beijing in the summer of 2008.