Hosted by vice president Zheng Qinghua of Xi’an Jiaotong University, the Special Work Meeting of Silk Road Engineering Sciences and Technology Knowledge Service was held in the meeting room-6 of the main building on the afternoon of March 17. Attending the meeting are project managers of schools and Colleges of Xi’an Jiaotong University, such as Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering, School of Foreign Studies, School of Continuing Education, School of International Education, Network Information Center (NIC), Department of International Cooperation & Exchanges, Xi’an Jiaotong University Library, Department of Social Sciences Research, etc.

Vice President Zheng first listened to the overall report of the Network Information Center on the work of Silk Road Sub-center of International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the Auspices of UNESCO in 2019. According to this report, under the task framework of IKCEST, the Silk Road Sub-center has comprehensively upgraded and revised the “Engineering Sciences and Technology Knowledge Silk Road Service System” technology platform with 460,000 newly increased digital resources processing and over 2million re-indexing data resources, greatly enriching the data resources of Belt-road countries, and provided abundant resources for domestic and foreign scholars to carry out the Belt and Road research. The sub-center also pioneered the talents training for the Belt and Road Initiative, with a total of 6,255 trainees and 5 sessions of overseas training, which were reported by overseas media such as Kyrgyz Southern Television, Walailak University News and Asia Daily, steadily promoting its international influence. At the same time, the 1st IKCEST “The Belt and Road” International Big Data Competition held in 2019 officially stride toward internationalization. Participants included not only all the “Double First-Rate” universities in China, but also some world-famous universities such as Harvard University, Purdue University, Oxford University, University of Zurich, Humboldt University of Berlin, etc., further increasing the international popularity of the sub-center.

Vice President Zheng said that under the leadership of Chinese Academy of Engineering, the IKCEST Silk Road Engineering Sciences and Technology Knowledge Service Project has taken the first step in the development of the Belt and Road talent training, and has accumulated abundant practical experience in data resources and platforms construction of the Belt and Road. He summarized four characteristics of the project as follows. The first is innovativeness. Though starting from scratch with the goals, specific plans, techniques, resources, and teaming building, we have the courage and confidence to do pioneering works in this field. The second is systematicness. The successful completion of the project relied on the effective integration and teamwork of various departments. Only by joint promotion and improvement can we realize the systematically proceeding of the project. The third is practicality. From its very beginning, Silk Road training has been combined with talent training, student’s interests and the future development of the subjects, therefore accumulating rich practical experiences. The fourth is interactivity. The development of the project has multiple effects, which all contributed significantly to building up a positive international image of Xi’an Jiaotong University. In the past five years, we have formed a set of system, built a team and a platform, and developed some topics. We have been implementing the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with these practical actions. When talking about future development of the program, vice president Zheng Qinghua said what we have achieved may look trivial when compared with the grand vision of a community of shared future for mankind proposed by President Xi Jinping. The 14th Five-Year Plan is also the third five-year plan of this project, and we have to think about how to do better. He encouraged everyone to make efforts to strengthen team building and resource mobilization with a pioneering spirit, lofty ideal and faith, and a strong sense of responsibility. He also encouraged everyone to achieve practical results in the establishment of mechanisms and personnel training, and to make more great achievements as the project grows.

In the meeting, all the project managers have unanimously stated that they will continuously strengthen their awareness, tap their potential, and further implement the  Belt and Road Initiative. They put forward suggestions on how to do a good job in the construction of the Silk Road Science and Technology Sub-center during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, discussed the construction tasks in 2020 in detail, and clarified on 22 tasks and its completion time.

Author: Dong Yang, NIC