DHAKA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi education minister said his country is attaching importance to learning Chinese as foreign language to further boost the nation's relations with China.

    In an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Dhaka on Tuesday, Education Minister Nurul Islam said, "Learning language is a first step to understand people and culture of other countries. For further strengthening the bondage of Bangladesh and China bilateral relations, we should more understand each other's language and culture."

    The education minister said the first Confucius Institute in South Asia was established in Bangladesh, which showed that the Bangladeshi government is keenly interested in learning Chinese language after English, the international language in the country.

    Another Confucius Institute is expected to be established soon in the country's largest Dhaka University in the capital city.

    Growing economic relations between the two neighboring countries have also contributed for attaching more and more importance in learning Chinese language, the minister said.

    "We're establishing an international language institute in Dhaka where there will be a big museum to preserve and showcase valuable documents of different languages also which are losing fast," he said.

    The minister said there will have the opportunity for wider research on different languages including Chinese, which is number one language of the world in terms of usage by people.

    "I think this will also make an opportunity for our people to learn Chinese language which is now on rise day by day through out the world," he said.

    Apart from many private and public universities, some schools in Bangladesh are also teaching Chinese language, he said.

    Several thousands of Bangladeshis are now studying Chinese language in a number of universities, including Dhaka University, North South University, BRAC University and also some middle schools like BIT in Dhaka.

    According to the information from the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh, some 73 Bangladeshi students including 58 with full scholarships will go to China this year for higher education.