Recently, a signing ceremony between the People’s Government of Hainan Province, Hainan University (HNU), and TJU was held in Hainan. The year 2008 saw the signing of the first cooperative agreement between TJU and Hainan Province. This time, the two sides renewed their agreement, which will lead to comprehensive cooperation in scientific and technological development, the application of technology and educational cooperation and exchange. Shen Xiaoming, Governor of Hainan Province, Wang Lu, Vice-governor of Hainan Province, Wu Yaoting, Party Secretary of of HNU, and President Li Jianbao of HNU, President Li Jiajun of Tianjin University among others, attended the ceremony between TJU and the People’s Government of Hainan Province.

Li Jiajun briefly explained TJU’s achievements over the past year on its road to becoming a university featuring TJU’s own character, a world-class university, and a university with Chinese characteristics. He said that in the past decade, great achievements have been made in their cooperation. Looking to the future, TJU will, as it always has, continue to cultivate talent and scientific research and make a greater contribution to Hainan’s economic and social development. 

On behalf of the government of Hainan Province, Vice-governor Wang Lu expressed his gratitude to TJU as it has been supporting Hainan’s development in many respects. He stated that TJU is one of China’s top universities and has strengths in many disciplines, therefore, it is expected that TJU will contribute more to Hainan’s development, based on its superior personnel, resources and science and technology. Moreover, Hainan will take action to work harder to cooperate with TJU. He acknowledged that to date the cooperation between the two sides has achieved fruitful outcomes.

On behalf of the People’s Government of Hainan Province and TJU, Lu Zhiyuan, Secretary-General of the Hainan Provincial Government and Shu Gequn, Deputy Party Secretary of TJU signed the cooperative agreement. According to the agreement, the Government and TJU will make full advantage of each other’s resources, environments, locations, strategic priorities, talented people, education, technologies, and disciplines. Guided by the principle of ‘sharing resources, making use of complementary strengths in order to cooperate and develop’, the two sides will extend their original cooperative agreement to new heights and deepen cooperation. Their cooperation will be based on national strategies, such as invigorating China through maritime developments and the Belt and Road Strategy. They will focus on three strengths of Hainan, namely, the pleasant ecological environment, the status of Hainan as a Special Economic Zone and an international tourism destination. Twelve key industries of Hainan will benefit from their cooperation, including tourism, tropical high-efficiency agriculture and the internet. A long-lasting cooperative mechanism is expected to develop, and each side will contribute its own advantages. On the one hand, Hainan will get intellectual help from TJU in educational cooperation, talent cultivation and the application of technological advances. On the other hand, with the support of Hainan, a substantive institution of TJU is expected to be built in Hainan, and members of TJU are welcomed to carry out their work in Hainan. The two sides will establish a firmer contact mechanism, make annual work plans, and set up high-level meeting mechanisms and arrange for meetings among department directors at regular intervals, in order to promote their cooperation.

TJU and Hainan has been cooperating for a long time. On January 8, 2008, the Government of Hainan and TJU signed the first province-university cooperative agreement. With the guidance and help of the Provincial Party Committee and the Government, they focused on the regional advantages and the key industries of Hainan, and carried out comprehensive cooperation in talent cultivation, the economy, and technology, etc. During the last decade, there have been over 120 cooperative programs, and the expenditure has reached 150 million Yuan. The achievements include a comprehensive demonstration project of a regional smart-power grid and a water resources conservation project, which are representative technological projects, and the Guilinyang Economic Development Zone project, among others. All the projects have contributed much to the development of Hainan’s economy and society.

TJU’s Partner Assistance Agreement with HNU during the 13th Five-year Period was signed by Shu Gequn and Liao Qinglin, Executive Deputy Party Secretary of HNU. According to the agreement, TJU and HNU will deepen their cooperation in six fields: Discipline construction, faculty training, talent cultivation, scientific research, development of a research platform, and international exchange, so that HNU is able to improve its comprehensive strength and core competence. Since the signing of the first Partner Assistance Agreement between TJU and HNU in 2009, members of these two universities have, through exchange, made fruitful achievements in talent cultivation and scientific research, among many other things. In the last five years, there were over 50 projects undertaken with the support of the two universities costing 4.6 million yuan, and total scientific research funding of over 100 million yuan. Disciplinary resources have been applied to meet the needs of China’s development strategies. They have overcome difficulties including ecologically sensitive construction on uninhabited islands, resource conservation, the board and lodging of the islanders, ecologically sensitive architecture, olericulture and marine corrosion. The Partner Assistance Agreement has also benefited the development of science and education in Hainan Province.

Editors: Sun Xiaofang and Ross Colquhoun