Delegation of Mekong Countries Officials Visited Nanjing

The delegation of Mekong countries officials, upon the invitation of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), continued their visit in Nanjing on 23 June 2016. 

The delegation paid a visit to Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government. Mr. Huang Xiqiang, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office, met the delegation. He briefed the delegation on the economic and social development of Jiangsu as well as the exchange and cooperation conducted by Jiangsu with Mekong countries. He highlighted that in 2015, Jiangsu’s GDP had exceeded 7 trillion yuan, taking the lead in the whole country. He noted that Jiangsu attached great importance to strengthen the friendly exchange with Mekong countries. In recent years, the economic and trade relations between Jiangsu and Mekong countries became closer and closer. Last year, the total import and export volume between Jiangsu and Mekong countries reached $22.138 billion, accounting for around 11.4% of the total volume  between China and Mekong countries. Industrial cooperation had made great progress. The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone invested by Jiangsu had become a landmark project of industrial capacity cooperation between Jiangsu and the “Belt and Road” countries. The factory built by Changzhou Trina Solar Company in Rayong Industrial Park, Thailand had been operating smoothly. He added that much progress had also been made between Jiangsu and Mekong countries in education cooperation. For example, Soochow University had opened its affiliated school in Lao PDR, namely Soochow University in Lao PRD. It was the first one opened in a foreign country by a Chinese university with the approval of the Chinese government. Meanwhile, Jiangsu was committed to transforming the training centre in Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone into a vocational training centre encompassing all Mekong countries. In addition, he commented the people-to-people exchange had become more and more active between Jiangsu and Mekong countries. There were many sister cities established. To conclude the briefing, Deputy Director-General Huang hoped to get continued support from ACC to Jiangsu’s efforts in expanding exchange and cooperation with Mekong countries in the areas of investment, education, culture, etc. The delegates thought highly of the achievements made by Jiangsu in its social and economic development. They hoped more enterprises based in Jiangsu would invest in their countries and expressed their willingness to make joint efforts with Jiangsu to strengthen the exchange and cooperation in industrial park building, training, education, culture and tourism. 

The delegation visited Nanjing University, a well-known university in China. Mr. Ji Dafu, Director of Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges, and Mr. Zhu Xiaoyi, Associate Dean of Institute for International Students met the delegation. They made a general introduction to Nanjing University including the foreign exchange and cooperation conducted by the University. They briefed that, with the advantages of multi-discipline and outstanding faculty, as well as remarkable achievements in scientific research, the University was among the first group in the universities of “Project 211” and “Project 985”. They added that up to now, the University had conducted exchange and cooperation with over 280 foreign universities.The number of international students had reached 3000, including over 200 from ASEAN countries. In recent years, the University had strengthened its exchange and cooperation with its counterparts in ASEAN countries. They noted that more ASEAN students were welcome to study at the University and exchange and cooperation with more ASEAN universities were expected. Some students from Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam attended the briefing and shared their experience in studying at the University. The delegates commented this was their first visit to the University and its achievements and the beautiful campus left them with deep impressions. They expressed their willingness to facilitate the exchange and cooperation between Nanjing University and the universities in their respective countries and to attract more ASEAN students to study at the University.

On the same day, the delegation also visited the Research and Development Centre of ZTE Corporation in Nanjing. The delegates were briefed on the ZTE’s development, its products and solutions as well as  its strategy for future development. The Marketing Manager of the Centre said that ZTE had made huge investment in Mekong countries. ZTE would like to develop more products and solutions catering for the needs of the Mekong countries, and make continuous efforts in innovation to contribute to the economic and social development of Mekong countries so as to achieve win-win cooperation for mutual benefit. The delegates showed great interest in the products and solutions of ZTE and asked for  elaborations on ZTE’s solutions to smart city building and storage of massive data.

In the evening, the delegates had a boat tour of Qinhuai River, the Mother River of Nanjing. They had beautiful memories of Nanjing, a city with  long history and rich cultural heritage.