From December 19th to 21st, under the guidance of the Zhejiang Provincial Foreign Affairs Office and the Provincial Education Department, the 2024 Lancang-Mekong Countries Entrepreneurship Education Alliance Exchange Activities were held in Hangzhou, co-hosted by a university and Wenzhou Institute of Technology. With the theme of Building Dreams on the Lancang-Mekong River and Creating Shared Futures, over 150 leaders, experts, and scholars from China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam gathered to discuss international education cooperation and development.
Wang Hongwei, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, and Du Jian, First-Level Investigator of the International Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Education Department, were invited to attend the event and address the audience. Senior Professor Wang Zhongming from Zhejiang University, Chief Director of Asia-Africa Division of Foreign Affairs Office, Zhang Xiumeng, member of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group Corporation, Deputy Director Sumana Sua-ek from Thailand Science and Technology Development Group Co., Ltd., Vice President NGUYEN THI THU LAN from Vietnam's Luohong University were among the guests invited to the event. The party was also attended by the party committee secretary of the university Lao Ciming, President Chen Dequan and Deputy president Lin Feng.
During his speech, Wang Hongwei pointed out that the six Lancang-Mekong countries uphold the Lancang-Mekong spirit of development first, equal consultation, pragmatic efficiency, openness and inclusiveness, emphasizing mutually beneficial partnerships and common development. In terms of education exchanges and cooperation between universities in Lancang-Mekong countries in various fields being fruitful, he hoped that the Alliance would continue to leverage its platform resources to promote internationalization of education in Lancang-Mekong countries, academic seminars and learning visits as well as establish a more comprehensive entrepreneurial education cooperation network to achieve higher levels of interconnection. In addition, it was hoped that entrepreneurship education would better serve the development of economy society and become a leader in education cooperation in Lancang-Mekong countries.
Lao Ciming emphasized that the university will fully leverage the platform resources of the Lancang-Mekong National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance and adhere to the purpose of deepening sharing of entrepreneurial practice education resources and regional cooperation. It is committed to building a platform for entrepreneurship exchange and cooperation between vocational colleges in Lancang-Mekong countries and firmly promoting diversified and multi-level entrepreneurship education and international talent training cooperation between universities and enterprises in Lancang-Mekong countries. Through continuous deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation among alliance members, all parties are encouraged to face challenges and opportunities together and work together to promote high-quality development of education in Lancang-Mekong countries and make greater contributions to regional stability and prosperity.
Du Jian reviewed the achievements of education exchange and cooperation between Zhejiang Province and Lancang-Mekong countries during his speech. He hoped that alliance members could leverage their platform advantages to further pool resources and weave closer cooperation networks that would facilitate youth exchanges between Lancang-Mekong countries, enhance sharing of entrepreneurial resources as well as contribute to serving the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism and the Belt and Road construction initiative with high-quality development.
Chen Dequan signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia's Asia-Europe University on behalf of his school and the alliance member unit to jointly promote cooperative projects such as joint training and teacher-student exchange visits.
Lin Feng signed a school-enterprise cooperation agreement on behalf of his school with the Zhejiang Enterprise Going Global Strategic Cooperation Alliance to jointly promote the collaborative strategy of going global for universities and enterprises in Lancang-Mekong countries.
At the conference, there was also a launch ceremony for the establishment of the Vocational Education Sub-alliance of the Lancang-Mekong River National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance, as well as the opening ceremony for the establishment of the Hangzhou Center of the Lancang-Mekong River National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance and the Lancang-Mekong Research Center. Our school was appointed as the chairman unit of the Vocational Education Sub-alliance of the Lancang-Mekong River National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance, and the secretariat of the Sub-alliance is located in our school.
Chen Dequan presided over the main forum of the conference. Senior professors from Zhejiang University Wang Zhongming, Assistant to the President of the Thailand National Development and Management Institute Charoenroop Pattrawut, Deputy Director of the Teaching Committee on Vocational Education for National e-Commerce Education Lu Chunyang, Deputy President of Asia-Europe University in Cambodia Sam Sophy, Nguyen Trong Anh from Vietnam's Luo Hong University, and other guests made special presentations.
During the conference, two rich sub-forums were also held. At the sub-forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education (International) Development, representatives from Hangzhou Normal University, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Thailand's Srinakharinwirot University, Myanmar's Buthidaung University, Silicon Valley Vocational and Technical College, and Zhejiang Shuren University shared their experiences in international entrepreneurship education.
At the sub-forum on International Exchange and Cooperation in Education, representatives from various organizations such as Phanomsarakham Vocational and Technical College in Thailand, Hatu Chinese Online College, Zhejiang Enterprises Going Global Strategic Cooperation Alliance, Zhejiang Vocational College of Economics and Trade, the editor-in-chief of African Psychology Journal, Hangzhou Liangtong Network Engineering Co., Ltd., and Beijing Bodao Prospect Information Technology Co., Ltd. shared their experiences in international academic exchange and cooperation, including themes such as international industrial-education integration, school-enterprise cooperation. They also conducted in-depth discussions with over 60 participants.
During the conference, participants also visited Alibaba. Some participants also visited our school's training bases and teaching facilities.
The Lancang-Mekong River National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance was established under the guidance of the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office and Provincial Department of Education in October 2023. Its purpose is to promote knowledge exchange and experience sharing among the six Lancang-Mekong countries in related fields and fully promote human exchanges between them. The successful holding of the 2024 China (Zhejiang) Lancang-Mekong River National Entrepreneurship Education Alliance Exchange Activities is a pragmatic action to implement the country's Belt and Road initiative spirit and promote the internationalization of universities in our province. It is also a specific measure to promote high-level opening up and build a strong province with high-level opening up. In the next step, our school will fully play the role of the chairman of the Vocational Education Sub-alliance, work with vocational colleges in our province and member units from five Lancang-Mekong countries to make more contributions to promoting the development of entrepreneurship education in regional vocational colleges and promoting cooperation between industry and education in our province as they go global.
