File photo shows StarTimes employees install the satellite television device at the Likii village in the central Kenyan county of Laikipia, July 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Jin Zheng)

KAMPALA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's Parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga has hailed China for implementing a digital television project for rural areas to be connected to satellite television.

Kadaga said the Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages project has extended coverage to many parts of the country, where only 30 percent of villages can access television.

She was speaking at a handover event of the access-to-digital-television project at Starlight Primary School in Kananage in the eastern district of Kamuli on Monday.

She urged the community to embrace the programs in order to access news and information.

"I want to thank the Chinese government. Through such programs, our people will be able to be informed on time and also realize the many opportunities outside their communities," Kadaga said, according to a statement from her office on late Tuesday.

Andy Wang, Chief Executive Officer for StarTimes, said the project would provide over 1,000 jobs to youths who will work as technicians in over 500 villages where the project has been implemented.