Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province in China, may sound like an unlikely place to set up a business development programme. But Ceibs, the Shanghai-headquartered business school, is now using European Union money to bring twenty-first century management expertise to managers in the city.

Ceibs, which was set up with financing from the European Union and the Municipal Government of Shanghai in 1994, will also teach its Business Development Certificate Programme in Kunming and Harbin, two other out-of-the-way Chinese cities, in 2009. In total the school will teach nine cohorts of participants, educating some 500 Chinese managers in these less developed areas of China from 2008 to 2012.