Vice President Chen Zhimin attended an online universities panel.
On the evening of October 19, Vice President of Fudan University Chen Zhiming attended the opening ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Chile relations online.
Guests at the opening ceremony
Held by Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and its Confucius Institute, the ceremony was joined by Raúl Fernández, the acting deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Ignacio Sánchez, president of Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Luis Schmidt, Chilean ambassador to China, Zhou Yi, the charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Chile, and Yang Bin, vice president of Tsinghua University.
Guests at the Universities Panel
At the Universities Panel held on October 21, Chen Zhiming pointed out that universities and colleges are the major force to promote cooperation in culture, education and technology between China and Chile. It took the lead in the establishment of Fudan-Latin America University Consortium and the “Seed Fund” to further the communication between students and teaching staff of the two sides, while enhancing research cooperation.
Vice President of Fudan University Chen Zhimin addressed the University Panel
As Chen Zhiming later pointed out, there are two shortcomings in education and academic communication. First, both countries need to improve language education, and enlarge the scale of fusion among multiple subjects due to the lack of interdisciplinary professionals. Second, both countries need to focus, beyond traditional fields of cooperation, on areas such as society, environment, medicine and high technology.
He underscored the significance and urgency of enhanced cooperation between the two countries in medicine and public health. More efforts need to be made on regional studies of Latin American and Asia to help developing countries on the two continents realize their common goal of achieving “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Universities should carry out abundant research on this topic, while examining how to learn from the models of economic development adopted by different countries. Fudan prioritizes innovative research and encourages the application of research results into real scenarios and it has signed a contract with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. With supportive government policies, Fudan and Huawei will jointly build a training center to cultivate talents with practical skills.
President of Pontifical Catholic University of Chile of Ignacio Sánchez made a speech at the University Panel
Ignacio Sánchez, President of Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, stated that it is of crucial significance for Catholic universities to develop relationship with Asia, and specifically, China. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has made it more urgent for China and Chile to cooperate remotely in health and crisis management.
The Universities Panel lasted for four days, covering topics including diplomacy, economy, history and culture, and academic exchanges. Experts in Chilean diplomacy and economics from Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, Sichuan International Studies University, Beijing Language and Culture University, East China Normal University, Catholic University of Chile, and universities and research institutions in the UK and Argentina were invited to participate in the event.
