On December 7, the 2nd Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum opened in Beijing with the theme of Working Together to Address Challenges and Promote Common Development. The Youth Forum on Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation, an important part of Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum, was held at Hohai University (HHU). Hao Zhao, Director of the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, and Chen Zhimin, Vice President of Fudan University, attended the opening ceremony of the Youth Forum online and delivered speeches. Xu Weiya, Vice President of HHU, also attended and addressed the opening ceremony. The Youth Forum was held in a combination of online and offline forms, with more than 80 participants, including youth representatives from the six Lancang-Mekong countries.
Xu Weiya pointed out that the co-occurrence of intensified climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic has posed daunting challenges to the Lancang-Mekong water management. Lancang-Mekong youth are expected to keep making concerted efforts and pooling wisdom to build a beautiful, prosperous and harmonious Greater Mekong Sub-region. Xu Weiya said that HHU will continue to build on its disciplinary characteristics, strengthen information sharing with the Lancang-Mekong countries, carry out joint research on coping with floods and droughts, constructing water security defenses, etc., and continue to provide cutting-edge, high-quality and convenient scientific education services for the youth of the six Lancang-Mekong countries, thus fulfilling its mission of making pragmatic efforts and enhancing people-to-people ties.
Youth representatives from six Lancang-Mekong countries exchanged views on the theme of Water Governance and Youth Mission in Lancang-Mekong Countries. Experts and representatives from the United Nations Development Programme, the International Economic & Technical Cooperation and Exchange Center of Ministry of Water Resources, the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Fudan University and Coca-Cola were invited to make presentations. The Forum released the Nanjing Initiative of the Youth Forum on Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation.
In recent years, HHU has focused on the major needs of high-level talent cultivation in the Lancang-Mekong Region, created a new model of collaborative cultivation of international students by the government, industry, universities and research institutions, and improved the support system and practice approach for improving the quality and efficiency of education for international students in China. It has also built a platform for international talent cultivation that fits the characteristics of the Lancang-Mekong Region and water conservancy, and formed a distinctive cultivation concept of high-level comprehensive international talent for the Lancang-Mekong cooperation and a Chinese brand of international higher education of water conservancy.
