On April 23rd, Mr. Charles Wana-Etyem, Chairman of the Council of Makerere University, and Mr. Bruce Balaba Kabaasa, Chairman of the Appointment Board of Makerere University, paid a visit to GDUFS. Sui Guangjun, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of GDUFS greeted them at VIP Room, Administration Building, North campus of GDUFS.
President Sui warmly welcomed Mr. Charles and briefed the colleagues who attended the meeting, as well as the history and development of GDUFS. President Sui mentioned the point that in response to the needs of globalization and increasingly close China-Africa exchange, GDUFS set up disciplines associated with internationalization and attached great importance to the cultivation of foreign language talents. President Sui proposed that two universities could further develop academic exchange and cooperation in language teaching but also carry out cooperative academic research in African studies, R&D, business, management, humanities and social sciences, etc.
Mr. Charles was glad of the visit. He made a brief introduction to the history, development as well as structure of Makerere University. Mr. Charles said that due to China’s rapid economic development and increasingly close China-Africa exchange, Chinese language talents were desperately needed. Therefore, he intended to take the opportunity of the visit to establish cooperative relationship with GDUFS and developed specific cooperation projects. Mr. Charles attached great importance to the cooperation between two universities and looked forward to President Sui’s return visit to Makerere University for cooperation consultation.
In the morning on April 23rd, Prof. Liu Jisen, Executive President of Institute for African Studies showed two chairmen around Guangdong Institute for International Strategies. Prof. Liu made a detailed introduction to the development, main functions as well as achievements of Institute for African Studies (IAS), which aroused great interests of two chairmen.
Prof Liu asked two chairmen about their opinions upon the strategic cooperation framework agreement which would be officially signed at President Sui’s return visit. Also, Prof. Liu invited affiliated research institutions of Makerere University to join International Association for African Studies Initiative. Mr. Charles and Mr. Bruce really appreciated the motion and promised to discuss the issue with relative departments and research institutions.
In the morning on April 24th, Prof. Liu took two chairmen to visit Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Group co., LTD. Their visit was warmly welcomed by Mr. Lv Weidong, Honorary Deputy Dean of IAS and Chairman of the company, and President Chen Wei.
Mr. Lv shared his experience of investing in agricultural industrial park in Uganda, and talked about his future plan. He promised that he would donate 0.3 to 0.5 million dollars to Makerere University for its teaching and academic research in agricultural field, and he hoped that Dondsong agricultural industrial park in Uganda could serve as a teaching and research practice base of Makerere University. Two chairmen expressed their gratitude to Mr. Lv’s commitment and appreciated the investment and facility construction provided by Dongsong Energy Group co., LTD.
In the afternoon of April 24, Mr. Charles gave a lecture on Prospective of China-Uganda Economic and Trade Relation.
Attending the lecture were Prof. Liu Jisen, Executive President of IAS, Yang Xiaoyan, Executive Director of “The Belt and Road Initiative” Collaborative Training Center for Chinese Traditional Medicine, Zeng Yuran, Executive Director of Global Marketing Research Center of Chinese Culture Brand, teachers from International Business School of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, as well as postgraduate students at Center for European Studies of GDUFS.
In his speech, Mr. Charles analyzed the investment opportunities in Uganda, mentioned some well-known Ugandan Chinese-funded enterprises, and talked about the talent shortage problem Chinese enterprises encountered in Uganda. Interactions in Q&A session went quite well.
Thank Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Group co., LTD for its support, without which there couldn't have been such a great academic exchange. A lot of thanks to Chairman Lv Weidong and President Chen Wei.
