SINGAPORE, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Nanyang Technological University is offering a new advanced executive training program for high-level Chinese officials that will be more customized to the needs of the trainees, the university officials said on Wednesday.

The first batch of 35 senior officials will train under the program, known as the Mayors' Program, starting from May this year. Most of them will be those at the mayor levels in charge of urban planning and development, said Wu Wei, director of the university' s Nanyang Center for Public Administration.

"With the fast urbanization process, the Chinese government is paying more and more attention to the training of officials on issues related with urbanization. Singapore has something to offer in this respect," Wu told reporters.

A second batch of high-level officials from China's northeastern province of Liaoning will receive training under the program for two weeks, and most of them will be officials overseeing urban development.

Wu said the center is trying to expand its short-term training programs and the design of the lectures for the program will be more focused on a certain field related to the trainees' work, including visits to government branches and sites of the projects in Singapore.

"Visits will be an important part of our program. We will take them to visit government institutions like the Land Transport Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. We will organize discussions for them to interact (with their Singapore counterparts). They will be visiting the second botanical garden now under construction to see the design of the project. Yes, we will concentrate more on the details," he said.

Nanyang Technological University has been offering training programs to Chinese officials since 1992, two years after the establishment of official bilateral diplomatic ties. It started with short-term training programs and then launched the two masters' programs in managerial economics and public administration in 1998 and 2005. About 1,000 people were trained under the two programs, dubbed the "Mayors' Classes."

The university said more than 12,000 Chinese officials have received training under the various training programs at the university since 1992.

The training programs "have been a witness to almost the whole journey of the advancement of cooperation in various fields between China and Singapore since the establishment of official diplomatic ties between them," said Dai Bing, charge d'affaires ad interim at the Chinese Embassy to Singapore.

Speaking on Wednesday at a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the first Chinese officials training program offered by the university, Dai said the knowledge and expertise of the Chinese officials coming here for training also improved significantly over the years, reflecting the progress China has made over the years.

Singapore Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said the government supported local universities to reach out to friends from other countries who wish to know more about the development journey of Singapore. Some of the retired ministers and current lawmakers have been invited to speak at the training programs.

Nanyang Technological University is offering training programs to high-level officials from Vietnam, too, Wu said.