Civil Servants from the Pacific Island Countries Converse with Guangdong Outstanding Youth at GDUFS

On June 10th, the Youth Dialogue of the First Program (2015 Spring) for the Civil Servants from the Pacific Island Countries was held in room 301, in the No. 6 Teaching Building. Twenty-four (24) senior civil servants from Fiji, Micronesia, Samoa and Tonga attended the meeting and exchanged views on the subject of “The Growth of Young People: Innovation and Leadership” along with representatives of outstanding youth from the Youth League Committee of Guangdong Province and the Youth Federation of Guangdong Province. Hosted by LIANG Xuehong, Dean of the Institute for International Education, the meeting was also attended by SU Caifang, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangdong Province; ZHANG Zhihua, Deputy Secretary of the Youth League Committee of Guangdong Province and ZHONG Weihe, President of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

The meeting commenced with an opening address in English from President ZHONG. He said that the timing of the meeting was perfect in terms of choosing the “Growth of Young People: Innovation and Leadership” as the subject of the dialogue. Innovation and leadership were the major impetus for a nation’s development. Innovation could give rise to reforms while leadership could ensure the realization of objectives. He noted that the forthcoming credit reforms in GDUFS were a sufficient indication of innovation. He also placed significant hope on the newly-established “Guangdong-Pacific Islands Center for Strategic Studies” whereby a new prospect of all-around exchanges with the Pacific Island Countries could be created.

President ZHONG delivering an address

Afterwards, ZHANG Zhihua, Deputy Director of the Youth League Committee of Guangdong Province and Vice-Chairman of the Youth Federation of Guangdong Province gave a speech. He briefly introduced the efforts made by the Youth League Committee and the Youth Federation in helping young people with the cultivation of creativity and leadership. He mentioned that in the second half of this year, the Youth Federation would lead a group of outstanding young people in different domains to visit the Pacific Island Countries, with the intention of promoting bilateral exchanges and co operation and for the purpose of discussing the possibility of dispatching volunteers to these countries. He expected a much broader international cooperation on the part of both sides in terms of economic, trade, culture, education, hygiene, sports, tourism and so on.

ZHANG Zhihua making a speech

SU Caifang, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangdong Province said that, despite being separated afar by vast oceans, people on both sides share sincere friendship. “By virtue of young people’s unique perspectives, innovative thinking and strong motivation, we can secure much closer and broader exchange and cooperations and breathe new life into the national development and social well-being of all parties”, she said.

SU Caifang giving a talk

Then, keynote speeches were given by eight delegates from both sides, they were respectively: DAI Boai, Senior Medical Officer of the Department of Hygiene and Medical Services of Fiji, DU Xu, Deputy General Manager of the Food Import and Export Group Company of Guangdong Provice, MA Jiasi, researcher of the Legislative Council of Tonga, LIN Zhiying, Chief Representative of the Lifeng Development Co., Ltd., LAI Fei, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Finance of Samoa, HU Weiquan, General Manager of the Global Market Group, Tian Meng from the Agricultural Bureau of Micronesia and Zhang Yuan, Secretary General of the Shenzhen Voluntary Service Foundation. Based on their own working experience, they had a heated discussion revolving around the topic of business innovation, personnel training, enhancing women’s leadership roles and young volunteer training.

The Youth Dialogue

All the participants

P.S.:

The background information of the First Program for Civil Servants from Pacific Island Countries includes:  

Approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the full support of the Chinese Embassy, the First Program for Civil Servants from the Pacific Island Countries which was sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Office and organized by GDUFS was officially initiated on May 19^th 2015. Twenty-four (24) senior civil servants of the national ministries and state governments from Fiji, Micronesia, Samoa and Tonga participated in the one-month training course on China’s national conditions, the industrial/cultural/economic profile of Guangdong Province, Chinese culture, economy, history, and so on. During this period of time, they paid a visit to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Foshan and exchanged views with representatives of local enterprises. The training course also held talks with the Department of Agriculture of Guangdong Province, the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province and the Administration of Oceanography and Fisheries of Guangdong Province, over how to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in these areas.