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| Singapore Management University President Arnoud De Meyer speaking at the inaugural China Forum held on 13 November. (Source: sg.xinhuanet) |
BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The Singapore Management University (SMU) held its inaugural China Forum in Singapore yesterday.
Themed “Be China Ready”, forum participants actively discussed a myriad of topics closely related to the current development of China, including boosting the rapid development of China, causal factors of potential risks, trends in population development, opportunities brought about by household income and consumption, social investments in China, and the ageing population in the country.
In his address at the Forum, SMU President Arnoud De Meyer introduced the university’s China Initiatives, of which the China Forum is part of.
Some of the main goals of China Initiatives are to provide more exchange and internship opportunities to students in Singapore and China, and to cultivate talent with bilingual cultural background, allowing them to make effective use of their knowledge in the trade and financial environments in China, and contribute to the collaborations between Singapore and China in the areas of trade, government and urban society.
Another of its main goals is to collaborate with influential academic organisations in China, working together to conduct research on topics of global impact.
Professor De Meyer hopes that China Initiatives will provide students with opportunities to engage China’s elite, and ready them for the country’s development.
In order to achieve this, SMU has since signed Student Exchange Memoranda with many of China’s top universities, such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. SMU has also engaged major enterprises in cities all over China, to provide students on exchange to China with internship opportunities.
Professor De Meyer added that this year’s China Forum is only the beginning, with plans for it to become an annual conference on China-related topics, to be held in turns between Singapore and China.
He also hopes for the China Forum to become a platform on which SMU can work together with its academic and commercial partners in advancing research collaborations, exchange programmes, internships, and development plans, for SMU to become the optimal choice for universities, organisations, and the business sector.
(Source: sg.xinhuanet)
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