GDUFS Holds Asian University Students Forum 2015

On the night of Nov 5th, the first Asian University Students Forum, organized by Office of International Cooperation & Exchange, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, opened on the GDUFS north campus. At the forum, 15 student representatives from three Asian universities, as well as 10 Chinese students and 10 foreign students from GDUFS, shared their opinions on topic of “The Internet and Student Entrepreneurship”. Attendees also included Liang Xuehong - Dean of Institute for International Education.

Asian University Students Forum

The forum was comprised of four parts. At first, the host Eric Xiang -from GDUFS School of Interpreting and Translation Studies - gave a brief introduction of the forum and warmly welcomed foreign students who had just arrived at GDUFS.

Then, CAO Weiming - Deputy President of Student Union - delivered a speech in which she talked about her own company with students of different majors, providing free translations on the Internet. She emphasized that the Internet played an important role in university students realizing their entrepreneurial dreams.

Student Representatives from Asian University, different language majors, Institute for International Education issued their own speeches in turn. CHEN Chaoyue – who majors in Thai – said that the Internet has provided a great opportunity for entrepreneur who have difficulty in raising funds. Ou Jiamin – who majors in Korean – believed that the Internet has a bright commercial prospect, by giving examples of her roommates selling cosmetics through WeChat. Bobrova Valeriia – a representative from Russia – talked about e-commerce market in Russia, where online shopping has become more and more popular because the products online are cheap. However, some students such as Sae-lee Mr.Jay – a representative from Thailand – pointed out the postal problems in his country; Oda Itsuki – a representative of Japan – said the Internet can lead to abuse and crime. Farhan Mahmood – a representative of Bangladesh – talked about the important role that the government should play in the Internet.

After a short break, the forum moved on to its fourth part: group discussion. Based on the two theses: “The Internet indeed helps entrepreneurship, but some people say privacy is harmed.” and “Some people say that entrepreneurship might be good for businessmen, but not for students because they should focus on studies.”, students were divided into five groups to share their own ideas. They all admitted that the Internet has raised privacy fears in some ways. But we should notice the driving force the Internet could be for development in many areas. Entrepreneurship has nothing to do with position, it’s about time management. Just as Farhan Mahmood mentioned in his speech, students are the future. He and his team encouraged students aged 3-16 to develop video games with government support. It’s positive to see these students may turn into entrepreneurs one day in the future.

Group photo

At last, the Deputy President of Student Union made a short conclusion. The Internet helps entrepreneurship a lot. Everyone can become entrepreneurs. Having passion matters, and so does ability. Her saying “Life is short, our time is limited, everyone should chase their dreams” led to the end of the forum.

Chinese Report：亚洲大学学生论坛聚焦“互联网与大学生创业”