On the afternoon of February 21, LI Junqi, Member of the Standing Committee, CPC Committee and Vice President of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (BUCEA), met with the delegation of the Belarusian Delegation in the Siheyuan Meeting Room, Daxing Campus of BUCEA, and the two sides had a friendly meeting on further strengthening mutual learning and personnel exchange between BUCEA and Belarusian universities. The delegation was led by Samuilich Aliaksandr, Director of Centre for International Relations of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, and its members included Morozevich Olga, Vice-Rector of Belarusian State Economic University, Sychou Aliaksandr, Vice-Rector of Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel, Korsakava Alena, Vice-Rector of Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, and representatives from Belarusian National Technical University, Minsk State Linguistic University and other universities. The meeting was hosted by JIANG Jie, Executive Dean of International Development Research Institute (School of International Education), and attended by the relevant staff of School of Urban Economics & Management and International Development Research Institute (School of International Education). Since the beginning of the year 2023, all departments and schools of the university have made every effort to seize the opportunity to promote international development, and this was the first foreign visiting group after the three-year COVID-19 pandemic.

On behalf of BUCEA, LI Junqi extended a warm welcome and sincere greetings to Director Samuilich Aliaksandr and his delegation. He briefly introduced BUCEA’s history, philosophy of schooling, predominant disciplines, scientific research strength and development of internationalization. He mentioned that the relationship between Belarus and China had upgraded to an “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership” last year, and the cooperation between the two countries in higher education was given new development opportunities since. The Belarusian National Technical University, Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel and Belarusian State Economic University are highly compatible with BUCEA in terms of major setting and school-running target, so the two sides have good conditions and broad prospects for cooperation. He expressed his sincere welcome to the relevant universities in Belarus to establish cooperation with BUCEA, join the Belt and Road Architectural University International Consortium (BRAUIC), focus on the predominant disciplines including smart city, green construction and urban management, increase the exchange of students, mutual visit of teachers and scientific research cooperation, and promote the cooperation between BUCEA and the relevant universities in Belarus for an all-dimensional, multi-tiered and wide-ranging development, so as to give new impetus to the friendly relations between Belarus and China.

Mr. Samuilich expressed his gratitude for the warm reception he received during the visit. He said that the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus attaches great importance to and is confident in the exchange and cooperation with China against the background of the increasingly closer relations between Belarus and China and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative. At present, Belarusian and Chinese educational departments have established a sound cooperation mechanism and signed more than 500 inter-university cooperation agreements. The universities of the two countries have carried out close exchanges and cooperation with remarkable results. In the future, he will actively promote the mutually beneficial cooperation between Belarusian high-quality universities and BUCEA, and make more contributions to jointly training excellent talents and enhancing friendship between the two countries.

Ms. Morozevich, Vice Rector of Belarusian State Economic University expressed her gratitude to BUCEA for its meticulous preparations to welcome the delegation. She and Vice President LI Junqi signed the framework cooperation agreement respectively on behalf of their own universities, and reached a consensus on further practical cooperation. The two sides will strengthen cooperation in the fields of discipline co-construction, talent training and cultural exchange under the framework of the agreement.

Mr. Sychou, Vice-Rector of Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel said that the two universities would give full play to their respective advantages, focus on cultivating high-level practical engineering talents, and carry out all-round cooperation in the exchange of teachers and students, scientific and technological innovation, etc., so as to achieve mutual benefit and development.

Mr. Drobysh Aliaksei, Dean of the Engineering and Pedagogical Faculty and Ms. Yakushenka Kseniya, Head of Marketing Department, Faculty of Marketing, Management, Entrepreneurship from Belarusian National Technical University introduced the university’s 3.0 strategy of “Education, Research and Practice” and expressed their expectation to join the BRAUIC and make contributions to the high-quality development of the consortium.

Mr. Samuilich and the delegation also visited the library in BUCEA’s Daxing campus, the Multi-functional Shaking Tables Laboratory, etc.