SOFIA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecom giant Huawei here on Thursday awarded certificates to Bulgarian students who recently participated in the company's global program Seeds for the Future.

The program was launched in 2008 to discover local ICT talents and provide them with scholarships and two-week training sessions in China.

Thanks to this program, young people would get to know China, open themselves to this country, and perhaps some of them would begin to study more closely the Chinese culture, civilization and achievements, Bulgaria's Deputy Minister of Education and Science Petar Nikolov said at the award ceremony.

"This is extremely important and useful, because in the world we live in, the more open we are to each other, the greater the guarantee for our success," Nikolov said at the ceremony, jointly organized by Huawei and Evrika Foundation.

Li Jing, managing director of Huawei Technologies Bulgaria, said that over 20,000 outstanding students from 102 countries, including 40 Bulgarians, have participated in the Seeds for the Future program up to now.

Academician Kiril Boyanov, chairman of the Council of Evrika Foundation, said in turn that for Bulgaria, this program was very important because the country gained the invaluable experience of Huawei.

"During our stay in China, we managed to touch a radically different and beautiful world and culture, get to know new people, see incredibly beautiful places and sights, and last but not least -- of course to gain knowledge about Huawei innovations," said Vesela Georgieva, one of the awarded Bulgarian students.

This journey was a dream coming true, Georgieva added.