Photo of the distinguished guests attending the signing ceremony

The afternoon of May 23, 2015 under the presence and witness of the Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Hao Ping, the vice mayor of Shenzhen Ms. Wu Yihuan, and the representative of the United Nations UNESCO education assistant director-general Mr. Tang Qian signed the Framework Agreement of Trust Fund in Qingdao City. Also, the secretary of the Party committee of SUSTC Mr. Li Ming, and the secretary-general of China UNESCO Committee Secretariat Mr. Du Yue attended the signing ceremony. 

According to the Agreement, Shenzhen Government will further support the work of UNESCO and implement the higher education development programmes in Asian and African regions as mutually agreed. All these are the concrete results concluded from the in-depth cooperation under the framework of MOU signed by Shenzhen City and UNESCO last year, which manifest Shenzhen’s initiative action and choice in faithfully implementing the national strategy of “One Belt and One Way”.

Mr. Tang Qian, the education assistant secretary-general of UNESCO, signing the Framework Agreement of Trust Fund

Ms. Wu Yihuan, the vice mayor of Shenzhen City, signing Framework Agreement of Trust Fund

Mr. Hao Ping expressed the congratulations on the successful signing of this Agreement. He stated “the Ministry of Education gives great support to Shenzhen to apply for UNESCO Type II education agency and we sincerely hope that Shenzhen and SUSTC can contribute more to make Chinese education international”.

Ms. Wu Yihuan introduced the achievements and challenges of Shenzhen City in implementing the innovation-driven development strategy as well as the ideas and measures taken to boost the intension type spanning development of higher education in the recent years in the signing ceremony. Ms. Wu expressed the willingness to expand the all-around communication and cooperation with UNESCO to speed up constructing Shenzhen into a modern and international innovative city.

Mr. Tang Qian spoke highly of the development of Shenzhen and supported Shenzhen to apply for UNESCO Type II education agency and holding of international conferences.

Secretary Li Ming extended his gratitude to UNESCO, Ministry of Education and Shenzhen City for their supports on the application of SUSTC in applying for UNESCO Type II education agency. He stated “SUSTC will get prepared fully and take all measures feasible to reach the conditions required for UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center and we will never let you down”.

According to the spirit of MOU and Framework Agreement of Trust Fund signed by both parties, Shenzhen plans to set up an UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center based on SUSTC so as to provide intelligence-led international platform regarding the education reform and development, absorb the best practices of the first-class universities of Asia-Pacific developed countries, manifest the successful experience of spanning development of China higher education, fully exert Shenzhen’s advantages in information technology industry, support the development of higher education of the Asian and African developing countries, and promote fairness and improve quality. The center will attract the world prestigious education experts who will bring forth suggestions on the development of Shenzhen higher education based on the actual situations, so as to facilitate Shenzhen citizens to get access to the world’s latest education news and research results and promote the construction of Shenzhen into a modern and international innovative city.