Symposium on Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries and Opening Meeting of Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China Was Held in Hangzhou

On March 23, 2019, Symposium on Research on Strategy and Implementation Approach of Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries and Opening Meeting of Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China was hosted by China Jiliang University (CJLU) in Hangzhou.The symposium was attended by Sheng Shihao, secretary and vice-president of the CPC Group of Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles (ZJFHSSC) ; Liu Dong, director of Planning Office of ZJFHSSC; Li Yubing, deputy director-general of Department of Standards Innovation Management of State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR); Chen Zhenhua, deputy director-general of Administration for Market Regulation of Zhejiang Province; Wang Xinliang, director of Standardization Division of Administration for Market Regulation of Zhejiang Province; Wang Shouyang, dean of School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS); Huang Qunhui, director of Institute of Industrial Economics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Fan Bainai, deputy dean of Public Policy Research Institute of Zhejiang University; Hou Junjun, director of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Hunan University; Zhu Liming, deputy chief economist of Zhejiang Development & Planning Institute; Song Mingshun, chief expert of the Major Project and president of CJLU; Yu Xiaoping, vice president of CJLU; as well as leaders of sub-projects of the Major Project and project team members, totaling over 40. Le Wei, dean of College of Economics & Management of CJLU, chaired the symposium.

Sheng Shihao expressed his gratitude to the leaders and experts coming to Hangzhou to support the research of social sciences and congratulated CJLU on its rapid development in national social sciences projects in recent years and being approved to undertake the major project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China for the first time. He hopes that the project group will produce more distinctive achievements centering on the Belt and Road development needs through the platform of the major project, and further improve CJLU research level in the featured field of standardization.

Professor Yu Xiaoping, on behalf of CJLU, expressed his gratitude to the instructions and guidance from leaders and experts present at the meeting and congratulated the research team led by Professor Song Mingshun on winning the major project. He briefly introduced CJLU to the experts and pointed out that CJLU adheres to the motto of “Developing National Economy by Metrology; Improving People’s Livelihood through Measurement” and stays true to the educational philosophy of “Metrology as University’s Cornerstone, Standards as its Code of Conduct, and Quality as its Career Goal”. CJLU actively participates in scientific research in key national fields and have established The Belt and Road University Alliance for Standardization Education and Academics (B&R UAS), the first-ever alliance in this regard across the world. He hopes that the project team will conduct the research steadily as scheduled, striving to provide decision support for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative based on the major project.

Professor Song Mingshun, chief expert of the project, presented the proposal of the major project and elaborated on its research objectives, methods and significance, research questions, research objects, research contents, and research progress. He also made a brief introduction to the 5 sub-projects: The Development Status Quo and Bottleneck Identification of Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries, Research on Function Mechanism of Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries, Approach Design of the Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries, Mainstay Cultivation and Promotion Mechanism Construction of the Standards-driven Interconnectivity among the Belt and Road Countries.

Experts and scholars present at the meeting highly affirmed the research significance of the major project. They all agreed that it is of great practical significance to conduct research on how to give full play to standards in jointly building the interconnectivity among the Belt and Road countries. The project proposal is logical and complete with novel opinions and solid elaborations, and the anticipated research results are of great pragmatic significance. Experts and scholars present at the meeting also provided valuable opinions and suggestions on how to conduct major projects in response to key national needs, and shared their insights into the theme of strategies and implementation approaches of standards-driven interconnectivity.