From March 24 to 26, the first Huaih International Forum and the 8th World Water Valley Forum, sponsored by Hohai University, were held in Xuyi, Jiangsu Province. With the participation of more than 200 elites at home and abroad, the forum conducted in-depth discussions on the theme of ecological management of the Huaihe River, economic development along the Huaihe River, and improvement of Huaihe River culture. Attendees of the opening ceremony included Tang Hongwu, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hohai University and Director of Huaihe River Research Center, Yang Feng, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of The Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, P.R.C., Han Quanlin, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Department of Water Resources of Jiangsu Province, Zhao Zhenglan, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Huai'an Municipal Committee and First-level Inspector, Zheng Sheng'an, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of China Society for Hydropower Engineering, Xu Hui, President of Hohai University, President of World Water Valley Institute and President of Water Diversion Engineering Institute, Xiang Yuzhang, President of Huaxia Culture Promotion Association and former Chief Inspector of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, and Deng Yong, Secretary of the CPC Xuyi County Committee. Anatoly Nikolaev, President of the North-Eastern Federal University of Yakutsk, and Mladen Vukomanović, Vice Chairman of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), recorded speeches for the opening ceremony of the forum.
Tang Hongwu pointed out better management of the Huaihe River to realize a stable Huaihe River in the new stage, giving full play to the characteristic advantages of a good ecological foundation and profound cultural accumulation along the Huaihe River, and providing talent guarantee and intellectual support for accelerating the economic recovery are the current topics of the era that Hohai University focuses on in depth. He hoped that through academic exchanges, achievement exhibitions, business communication, and visits, industry barriers would be eliminated and cross-border integration would be strengthened. These activities would also help gather high-end resources from all parties, empower the development of the Huaihe River, boost the development and upgrade of the ecological economy and culture along the river, and promote the ecological economy and culture of the Huaihe River from China to the world.
At the opening ceremony, other activities were also held, including the stamp donation ceremony of the Huaihe River Must be Repaired, the unveiling ceremony of Two Mountains Think Tank and World Water Valley Demonstration Base, the exchange of strategic cooperation agreements on the design of the Grand Canal Baili Gallery Corridor Station, the awarding ceremony of public welfare designers and keynote speeches.
During the forum, the World Water Valley Institute of Hohai University and the World Water Valley Huaihe Ecological Economy and Culture Research Institute (Xuyi) held a council meeting, in which the council members exchanged views on the progress of the institute and the future development path. The guests also inspected the progress of cooperation between the World Water Valley Institute of Hohai University and Xuyi around university-local integration, industry-university integration, and government-enterprise integration.
