On May 15th, CIE held the opening of "Belt and Road" Senior Seminar for cultivating energy and chemical engineering personnel. The program consists of 17 students from Vietnam, Brunei, Turkey, Sri Lanka and other countries.

To build the Silk Road economic zone and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road (referred to as "the Belt and Road"), is a strategic decision from the viewpoint of overall situation and development tide and proposed by the central committee of CPC, with Xi Jinping as General Secretary. The decision has so far drawn wide attention and active support of the international community. Under the new situation, the important subject that Chinese education should pay high attention to and research in depth is how to train and cultivate international talents needed by the Belt and Road project. Since 2015, Shanghai has implemented the educational project for international students, and funded the political elites, leading figures from various fields, and innovative talents for their advanced studies and professional training in the higher institutions of Shanghai. After the successful holding of four "the Belt and Road" senior training courses in 2016, pursued now are follow-up courses for talents in urban development, young diplomatic talents, international cooperation in productivity, energy and chemistry, education and administration, modern Chinese agriculture and high-end Chinese medicine and so on. There involve 9 universities, among of which is our school.

At the opening ceremony, the host Zhao Haibo introduced the participants as well as the development of ECUST. And He Chongheng, former vice dean from School of Chemical Engineering, delivered a theme speech on how to cultivate "the Belt and Road" talents, winning a positive response from students. Then, TRUONG NGOC TU, the student representative, conveyed their enthusiasm to this project.

The project aims to cultivate a group of advanced engineering and technical personnel who have a good understanding of Chinese culture, international visions and ideas about advanced energy and chemical technology so as to lay foundation for strengthening China's international cooperation with "the Belt and Road" countries involved, and for building energy and chemical engineering industries on a higher level of cooperation. It is hoped that through this project, we can better highlight the advantages of our international school-running and create the brand project with ECUST characteristics by actively responding to the national development strategy of “Belt and Road.”. The project has received strong support from Schools of Chemical Engineering and Business.