Consul General of New Zealand in Guangzhou Talks about One Belt and One Road Initiative at GDUFS

On the morning of April 7th, the Consul General of New Zealand in Guangzhou, Ms. Rebecca Needham, visited GDUFS. She, along with Ms. XIE Pianpian, had a meeting with experts of the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies (GRIIS) and met with President ZHONG Weihe in the VIP Hall of the Administration Building. It was the first time that officials of Consulate General of New Zealand in Guangzhou had visited GDUFS since Ms. Needham’s took office in Guangzhou. CAI Hong, Director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, WU Junfeng, the Deputy Director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange and CHEN Hanxi, Deputy Secretary General of GRIIS, also attended the meetings.

The meeting

At the beginning of the meeting, along with the experts representing GRIIS, Ms. Needham introduced the current situation of the China-New Zealand relationship concerning economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries. She noted that it was a new stage for New Zealand to establish further relationships with Southern China as the Chinese Government launched the One Belt and One Road Initiative. And, too, she noted that she felt very happy to pay a visit to GDUFS. Ms. Needham explained the two reasons for her visit: One was to have a better understanding of the One Belt and One Road Initiative and its influence on Oceania; And the other was to discuss the goals of the New Zealand Ambassador’s visit to GDUFS next Monday.

 Ms. Needham

The experts of GRIIS clarified the significance of the cooperation between New Zealand and Guangdong Province and specified the ways of building a win-win relationship through the agreement. They noted that Guangdong Province is an economically powerful province in China and it is close to New Zealand, which makes it a logical pioneer to develop and practice the concepts of the One Belt and One Road Initiative. As GRIIS is going to write a blue book series for the countries of Oceania so that all the people could have a better understanding about their politics, economic ideas and culture, they requested resources and support from the New Zealand Government. Ms. Needham expressed her pleasure in offering help and in providing the maximum resources possible. The experts present also suggested that more New Zealand scholars and experts might visit Guangzhou to further communicate ideas about how the book series could advance the project.

Ms. Needham and ZHONG Weihe

In the VIP Hall, President ZHONG Weihe gave a warm welcome to Ms. Needhamwhile introducing the history of GDUFS and, too, he mentioned that there were more than 20 languages being taught at GDUFS. And that, as well, our school is going to cover more languages in Mid-Asia as the One Belt and One Road Initiative is implemented. President ZHONG noted that GDUFS has established cooperation and exchange projects with Victoria University of Wellington and that he sincerely wished to establish more academic communications and collaborations with New Zealand universities. Ms. Needham expressed gratitude for the President’s greetings and noted that she hoped there would be more academic collaborations between the two countries and that more students from her country would come to GDUFS to study Chinese language and culture.

The One Belt And One Road Initiative: One Belt And One Road (OBAOR) or One Belt One Road(OBOR) or Belt And Road (BAR) initiative, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is an initiative introduced by President XI Jinping in September and October of 2013. It was the first time that an element of Chinese leadership was mentioned related to the strategic vision of this project.