On the morning of April 22, 2022 (GMT+8), the opening Ceremony for "Seminar on Capacity Building for Judicial and Law Enforcement Officials of the Philippines" hosted by Ministry of Commerce and organized by MOFCOM Training Base for International Business Officials (Shanghai) was held online. Liu Beimin, investigator of the Foreign Economics and Cooperation Division of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and Chen Wei, executive vice dean of International Education College of Shanghai Business School attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.

Since the 47th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations  between China and the Philippines, the partnership between the two  countries has achieved considerable development in various fields such  as regional cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture, security and  tourism. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the people from  both sides have always been watching and helping each other, which  vividly interprets the concept of the community with a shared future for  mankind through practical actions. The purpose of the Seminar is to  share with the Philippines China's concepts, practices and relevant  policies in judicial and law enforcement cooperation, and strive to  build a "three-in-one" interconnection pattern of judicial cooperation,  capacity building, and personnel exchanges, and further enhance the  level of judicial cooperation, expand the cooperation areas, and enable  the people to share the fruits of "the Belt and Road".

In the speech, Liu Beimin mentioned that the Chinese government has  been actively and steadily promoting judicial reform, while consistently  attaching importance to international exchange and cooperation in this  field. China has concluded 49 judicial cooperation treaties with 32  countries. In a complex and turbulent international situation,  strengthening international judicial cooperation and promoting  compliance and transparency in judicial enforcement has a positive  effect on effectively combating and controlling crimes, promoting  economic and social development in accordance with the law, maintaining  good order in the international community and safeguarding the common  interests of the two countries. She sincerely hopes that  the Seminar would not only be a bridge that can strengthen the judicial  and law enforcement cooperation between China and the Philippines to  achieve new development, but also can help develop friendly relations to  a new level.

Chen Wei said that, in recent years, China-Philippines relations have  flourished, and the two countries have established a new position of  "comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship" and the pragmatic  cooperation in the fields of political security, economy, trade  and humanities between the two countries has become more solid and the  results are increasingly fruitful. In this context, the holding of the  Seminar is a pragmatic move to implement the signing of a number of  bilateral cooperation documents including the Memorandum of  Understanding between China and the Philippines on Jointly Promoting the  Construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. As the organizer of the  Seminar, SBS has made adequate arrangements based on the needs of  Philippine officials. The experts will have in-depth discussions with  officials in the fields of Chinese judicial system, Chinese police  system and practice, analysis of criminal policy, application of  community correction psychology technology, and so on.

Brendan Fugancio, Director for Human Resource Development of the  Philippine Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, delivered a speech on  behalf of all the trainees. He expressed his sincere thanks to the  organizers of this seminar. He believes that the friendship between  China and the Philippines is deeply rooted, and the Seminar is one of  the fruits of further strengthening the relationship of mutual trust and  cooperation between the two countries. The Seminar will help  participants have a better understanding of the Chinese judicial system  as well as learn from China’s best practices. This will also expose  Philippine officers on alternative ways to address similar issues and  challenges experienced by their own judicial and law enforcement  systems.

The Seminar will last for 14 days. A total of 20 government officials  from Philippine National Police, Bureau of Corrections and Bureau of  Jail Management and Penology and other departments will participate.

The Seminar was held at a special period of the dynamic zero COVID-19  strategy of Shanghai, and was the first online foreign aid training  program of our university in 2022, marking the full launch of this  year's online foreign aid training program. Facing the huge challenge of  the quarantine, all our staff have taken a positive attitude and have  developed and implemented a specific plan to deal with the situation.  The base has communicated with the Economic and Commercial Counselor's  Office of the Embassy of China in the Philippines many times, actively  promoted the enrollment process, and gained an in-depth understanding of  the training needs of the participants. Based on the understanding of  the participants' sectors and their training needs, the project expert  consultation was carried out and on this basis, experts in the field of  judicial law enforcement were invited to tailor training programs for  the participants. In response to the uncertain factors in the home-based  situation, the base held several online conferences, continuously  improved the implementation plan and the emergency plan, and conducted  rehearsal exercises to provide sufficient guarantee for the smooth  holding of the Seminar.

Written by: Hong Xingzhi

Photos by: Li Zheng

Reviewed by: Chen Wei