"Students Home-Stay Program between Malaysia and China" was launched here on Saturday which will expect all five students with a 10-day's staying in local families for living and study.

The organizers, Malaysia-China Friendship Association and Beijing Foreign Studies University told media at a launching ceremony that students from the two countries who have deep interest in the culture, history and language of the other side will be selected for exchanging study in January 2009.

It is hoped that the program can promote and strengthen the understanding, friendship, custom, culture, solidarity between the young generations of Malaysia and China, they said.

Hou Kok Chung deputy minister of Higher Education said that the Malaysian government has made it a project to attract more foreign students to study in its colleges and universities, and China, therefore, remains among the center of the target.

Hou also disclosed that the ministry has set four offices outside Malaysia for enrolling overseas students, respectively in Beijing of China, Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, Jakarta of Indonesia and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates.

More than 12,000 Chinese students are studying in Malaysia while the Malaysian students in China exceeded 1,300, according to Cheng Yonghua, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia.