On the morning of October 29, at the invitation of Louis Diego Monsalve, Ambassador of The Republic of Colombia to China, Vice-president He Ying went to Embassy of Columbia in China negotiating exchanges and cooperation between SBS and Columbia Universities with the Ambassador. Zhu Xiaoyan, Cultural Counselor from Embassy of China in Colombia, Oscar, First Secretary from Embassy of Columbia in China, Yang Bing, Deputy Director of Office of International Exchange and Chen Wei, Associate Dean of School of Continuing Education, SBS, attended the meeting.

Ambassador Louis Diego Monsalve introduced the development and achievement that Columbia had achieved in the fields of economy, social development, tourism and education. He pointed out that, Columbia had been relatively stable in its economic development, and its society was stable and in order; besides, its total volume of foreign trade had been growing year by year, especially, certain achievements had been made in the fields of commerce, tourism and educational culture. He said that, the next year would be the 40th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between The Republic of Colombia and the People's Republic of China and he hoped that the relationship between two countries would be closer, and more Chinese people would go to Columbia for study, and he also wished that the students of two countries would have more frequent visits.

Vice-president He Ying provided the basic information of SBS and described the exchange and cooperation programs jointly implemented with universities and colleges abroad such as communication between teachers and students, summer vocation exchanges and so on. She stressed that, the reciprocal visits became more frequent, which promoted and facilitated the further development of relationship between two countries. She said that, since its establishment, Training Base of International Commerce Officers (Shanghai) of Ministry of Commerce in SBS had trained a group of commercial officers from Columbia, imparted professional knowledge and ideas to them and demonstrated the development and changes in China for them, so she expressed her wishes to have deeper and broader communication with colleges and universities as well as people of Latin American Countries.

Counsellor Zhu Xiaoyan said that, in recent years, the cooperation between China and Colombia was deepening with each passing day in a number of fields, and the communications between two countries in domains of politics, economy and trade, science and technology, cultural and educational exchange have entered a new stage. “Sinomania” and “Chinese fever” were heating up, and the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and Columbian Universities had been fruitful.

Ambassador Louis Diego Monsalve detailed the cooperation and exchanges between Columbian and Chinese universities, and emphatically introduced the basic information on Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Advanced Administration and Management Institute of Columbia, Education and Technology University of Columbia, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and Research and Development University of Columbia.

Vice-president He Ying said that, SBS was willing to implement deep and sound cooperation and exchange in domains of exchange visits of teachers and students, teaching research etc. with Columbia Universities and it was also willing to explore more patterns of cooperation with Columbia Universities, to maintain good cooperation between and promote the joint development.

After the meeting, with Ambassador Louis Diego Monsalve and Counsellor Zhu Xiaoyan as witnesses, Vice-president He Ying, on behalf of SBS signed inter-school Memorandum of Understanding with the above five Columbian universities.

During the meeting, two sides enhanced their understanding of culture, education, exchange and cooperation of the other side, and the interschool cooperation between SBS and colleges and universities in Latin American Countries had been expanded, and SBS's “Circle of Friends” in Latin America had also been widened.

Drafted by: Zhang Wen

Photographed: by Zhang Wen

Reviewed by: Chen Wei

Edited by: Wu Guojun