On the afternoon of June 15, the opening ceremony of the South Sudan Road and Bridge Construction and Maintenance Seminar hosted by Beijing Jiaotong University was held online, and Vice President Guan Zhongliang attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Simon Miyok, Minister of Road and Bridge Department of South Sudan, Ma Wenjun, Chargé d'affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan, Mu Jianjun, Economic and Commercial Counsellor, Chen Runyun, Vice President of the International Business Officials Training College of the Ministry of Commerce, Duan Weihua, Director of the Second Project Division, Zhang Bin, Deputy General Manager of Shandong High-speed Nile Investment and Development Co., Ltd., and other guests participated in the opening ceremony through online forms.
Guan Zhongliang delivered a speech on behalf of the school. He said that since the 126th anniversary of its establishment, the school has participated in and witnessed the historical process of China's transportation development, and enjoys a wide reputation and influence at home and abroad. Beijing Jiaotong University attaches great importance to the curriculum design and preparation of this seminar, and will adopt a combination of cloud classroom, seminar exchange and cloud visit to create a good learning environment for the students as always. During the training period, experts and scholars in the field of road and bridge construction will be invited to give lectures to the trainees, and the trainees will be arranged to have discussions and exchanges with the professors; Organize cloud visits to the Tunnel and Underground Engineering Laboratory, Engineering Structure Laboratory, Wind Tunnel Laboratory of Beijing Jiaotong University, as well as the Sports Center of Xiong'an New District, the construction site of the Jilai High-speed Railway, and the Six Towers Diagonal Lat Bridge of the Xilamulun River, etc., to carry out practical teaching and integrate theory with practice.
On behalf of the organizer, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, Chen Runyun congratulated the smooth opening of the seminar. He said that infrastructure construction is crucial to the development of the country. In recent years, under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has actively participated in global traffic governance, strengthened international exchanges and cooperation, contributed Chinese wisdom and strength to promoting global sustainable development and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, and has achieved rich experience and achievements. South Sudan is a beautiful and young country with a hard-working people, but it is also in dire need of development. Nowadays, China's "Belt and Road" initiative has become a new booster for economic and trade cooperation and development between the two countries, the scale of bilateral trade has been expanding, and exchanges and cooperation in various fields have gradually deepened. It is hoped that this workshop will share China's technology and experience in bridges and roads, strengthen the capacity building of South Sudan's transportation infrastructure, and promote further mutually beneficial cooperation and development.
In his online speech, Simon Miyok said that the seminar is a witness to the friendly relations between China and South Africa. China was founded in 1949 and entered a path of rapid development after the reform and opening up, all of which are worth learning from the young country of South Sudan. South Sudan has a lot of mineral resources and natural resources, and there will certainly be more bases for cooperation between the two countries. China has aided the construction of a number of road and bridge projects in South Sudan, and this workshop can provide professional technology and experience for the transformation and development of South Sudan. It is hoped that after the end of the COVID-19 epidemic, young people in South Sudan will be able to go to China to learn more about it, so as to better promote the development of South Sudan and even Africa.
In his online speech, Ma Wenjun said that In recent years, China has greatly supported south Sudan's human resources capacity building by organizing multi-term training courses and conference exchanges. There is an old Chinese saying called "ten years of trees, a hundred years of tree people". The Chinese government will work with other countries in the world to provide support for South Sudan's continuous cultivation of talents, so that South Sudan can continue to move forward on the road of peaceful development.
The student representative, Henri Genaro, Project Manager of the South Sudan Road and Bridge Department, was particularly grateful to Beijing Jiaotong University for hosting the workshop, which enabled them to have this opportunity to learn. He said that all the trainees felt very honored and looked forward to learning From China's knowledge and experience. The curriculum and visits at Beijing Jiaotong University are rich and exciting, and they believe that they will be able to learn a lot of new technologies and apply them to the construction of South Sudan.
The 14-day workshop was attended by 25 officials from the South Sudan Road and Bridge Department. The workshop will focus on China's experience in road and bridge construction and maintenance, help cultivate talents in the infrastructure field in South Sudan, and promote local social and economic development.