The unveiling ceremony of the "China-ASEAN Capacity Building Center" and the "China-Indonesia Smart Ocean Center" was held on July 27th in Guiyang ASEAN International Conference Center. Guizhou Institute of Equipment Manufacturing Vocational College was entrusted with the organizational work by Tianjin University and Mahidol University which cooperated and constructed the two centers. The honored guests present included Chen Dehai, Secretary General of China-ASEAN Center; Fang Jun, Deputy Director of the International Department of the Ministry of Education of China; Chantavit Sujatanond, Director of the Center for Higher Education and Regional Development of the Southeast Asian Education Minister; Wei Dingmei, Deputy Mayor of the Guiyang Municipal People's Government; Liu Xin, Deputy Director of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission; and Liu Baoli, Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Education Exchange Week Organizing Committee.Over 100 experts, scholars, government officials and diplomatic missions from more than 30 universities in China and ASEAN countries also attended the event.

Hu Wenping, Vice President of Tianjin University and Ketut Buda Artana, Vice President of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, jointly unveiled the "China-Indonesia Smart Ocean Center". Prof. Suwat Benjaponpitak, Vice President of Mahidol University of Thailand and Professor Sun Youhai, Dean of Tianjin University Law School, gave a keynote speech in the “China ASEAN Capacity Building and Scientific Research Cooperation Seminar held after the ceremony. The opening ceremony and the seminar constituted the main event of the 11th China-ASEAN Cultural and Educational Exchange Week and the 2018 China-Indonesia Deputy Prime Minister Humanities Exchange Mechanism Project. The China-Indonesia Smart Ocean Center is led by the School of Marine Science and Technology of Tianjin University, and the partners are universities from Indonesia such as the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology. The unveiling of the "China-Indonesia Smart Ocean Center" has established a high-end platform for high-level, international and coordinated development of China-Indonesia technology research cooperation and talent exchange, and also marks that China-Indonesia's smart ocean construction cooperation has entered a substantive phase.

On the afternoon of the same day, the School of Marine Science and Technology of Tianjin University held a seminar on “Smart Ocean Construction”. More than 40 guests from the ASEAN universities such as Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Mahidol University of Thailand, University of Malaya, University of Technology Malaysia, Malaysian National Defense University, and Terengganu University of Malaysia and Tianjin University and Hainan University attended the seminar. At the seminar, Dewi Hidayati, Dean of the Department of Biology, , Yoyok Setyo Hadiwidodo, Deputy Director of the Department of Ocean Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Fu Xiaomei, professor of the Department of Marine Technology, Tianjin University, and Chen Yuyang, deputy researcher of the National Ocean Information Center gave speeches about the topics on Indonesian Fisheries Information System, the Marine engineering education in Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Ocean Beidou satellite navigation system and China-ASEAN marine cooperation. The guests responded enthusiastically to the theme report and interacted with the guest speakers several times to discuss in depth the promotion of the application of the marine Beidou in international cooperation, the advancement of the marine engineering education discipline, and the entry point and cooperation mode of cooperation between China and ASEAN. The guests of the ASEAN countries are full of confidence in the subsequent scientific and cultural exchanges and cooperation with China's smart ocean.

By Xing Chang from School of Marine Science and Technology

Editors: Yin Wei & Doris Harrington