BEIJING - With an expanding economy and increasing global role, China's need for speakers of less-commonly taught languages will soar over the next decade, and the leading foreign language university has pledged to meet the rising demand.

"The current number of languages we cover, 48, can't meet future need, so we plan to cover 89 less-commonly taught languages by 2020," Chen Yulu, president of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said.

Its initial target is to offer 73 of these languages by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). The first step will concentrate on five Central Asian, and several South Asian, languages.

Although the university has the largest number of language courses in China, it still falls behind colleges in other countries, said Chen, whose university celebrates its 70th the new government badly needs after the war. 

According to research by the university, most of the world's political and economic powers have courses covering an average of 100 less-commonly taught languages. Courses in the United States, for example, cover 270 of these languages.

"We have heard stories in recent years about Chinese enterprises failing in overseas investment projects because they don't have employees who can speak foreign languages, or know the culture, business rules or laws in those countries," Chen said.

He noted that some State-owned media in China are implementing "go-out" strategies, increasing the number of Chinese journalists working overseas.

"This will also increase the demand for languages outside the mainstream, and we're trying to match the content of our courses with the demand of the employment market," he said.

Students who study these languages at the university could spend a semester overseas, funded by the Ministry of Education and the China Scholarship Council.

Over the past seven decades, the university has employed more than 4,000 foreign experts to teach non-mainstream languages with help from the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs.

To train more qualified Chinese teachers, the university also attracts distinguished students who majored in English, who then study abroad for three years and earn PhD degrees in international relations. These graduates can then teach languages at the university.

"Increasing numbers of students studying less-commonly taught languages prefer to enter enterprises rather than becoming civil servants," Zhao Gang, dean of the university's School of European Languages and Culture, said.

"We provide students second degree courses in economics, law and international relations so that they can be competitive."

He noted that around 90 percent of foreign teachers at the university have PhD degrees and teaching experience overseas.

"The reputation of the university also attracts increasing numbers of overseas students, who speak non-mainstream languages, to study Chinese every year," he said.

Tort Raksmey, a 29-year-old Cambodian police officer, enrolled at the university's School of Chinese Language and Literature in July.

The program aims to promote cooperation between police forces and was jointly launched by the Ministry of Public Security and the Cambodian government four years ago.

"I decided to learn Chinese when I was 18 because the booming economy made me realize that bilingual language skills could help me in business," he said. "I finally became a police officer as expanding trade ties also meant that the two countries were increasing efforts to tackle crime."

He will study Mandarin at the university for a year and get an insight into how the Chinese police operate.

Founded in Yan'an in 1941, the university was New China's first institution specializing in foreign languages. It was originally called the Yan'an School of Foreign Languages and was part of the Russian Language Unit of the Third Branch of the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political College.

The college went on to become China's principal base offering foreign language training, and is now a key university under the Ministry of Education.

Dubbed the "diplomat's cradle", the university has seen more than 400 graduates become ambassadors for China.