On the evening of November 18, 2022 (GMT+8), the opening ceremony for Seminar on Infrastructure Planning and Project Management for Samoa, hosted by Ministry of Commerce and organized by MOFCOM Training Base for International Business Officials (Shanghai) was held online. Fang Meng from the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and Chen Wei, Executive Vice Dean of International Education College attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in the 1970s,exchanges and cooperation between China and Samoa and other Pacific island countries have continued to expand, covering more than 20 areas such as trade and investment, marine environment, disaster prevention and mitigation, poverty alleviation, medical and health care. The seminar aims to promote the exchange and cooperation between China and Samoa in infrastructure planning and project management, to create a new opportunity for China and Samoa to achieve complementary advantages and common development, and to provide new development opportunities to enhance the welfare of the people of both countries.
Fang Meng expressed his sincere hope that the seminar would not only provide opportunities for mutual learning and exchange, but also build bridges of friendship, and make joint efforts to strengthen multi-disciplinary exchanges and deepen practical cooperation between China and Samoa, and make positive contributions to improve the level of infrastructure planning and project management between the two countries.
Chen Wei said that China values the friendship and cooperation with Samoa and is willing to work closely and support each other with Samoa and other Pacific island countries to enhance the level of mutual exchanges and cooperation in many fields. It is hoped that the participating officials will use the seminar as a platform to share advanced experience accumulated in infrastructure planning and project management, discuss bottlenecks and problems encountered in their respective fields, and jointly cope with new environments and new challenges.
Participant representative, Ms. Faith Mataji, a policy and planning officer of the Samoan government, expressed her hope that through the seminar, she could learn from China's advanced experience in infrastructure planning and project management and improve the level of infrastructure construction in her country.
The seminar will last 21 days, and a total of 26 officials from the Samoan government's project management department, engineering and infrastructure department and other related departments will participate.
Written by: Ma Yizhou
Photos by: Ni Haoran
Reviewed by: Chen Wei
