On January 28, 2016, the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Eurasia: Intercultural Interaction in the Economic and Educational Space” was held at the Belarusian State Economic University. Its co-organizers were the BSEU (Confucius Classroom) and the BSU (Confucius Republican Institute of Sinology).
The conference participants were welcomed by the Vice-Rector of the Belarusian State Economic University A.M. Sedun; First Secretary for Education at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belarus Wang Dajun; Deputy Director of BSU Confucius Institute BSU Ms. Liu Sulin; Dean of the School for Work with International Students N.N. Scryba, who spoke about the importance of further enhancing the relations between Belarus and China, both in the economic and educational sphere.
The Dean of the School of International Economic Relations, Doctor hab. (Economics), Professor G.A. Shmarlovskaya disclosed in more depth the economic aspects of mutually beneficial partnership of the two countries in her paper “Economic Cooperation of the Republic of Belarus and the PRC”. She highlighted the effectiveness of growth with impressive examples: over the past 20 years, the trade between Belarus and China has increased 100 times and in 2014 amounted to more than $3.2 billion. On the Belarusian side, exports amount to $641.5 million, on Chinese side $2.4 billion. The basic Belarusian exports to China are potassium fertilizers, combines, raw materials (flax, polyamides, powdered milk). An important component of the partnership with this Asian country is the fact that it has invested its financial resources in innovative projects (more than $5 billion since 2008). These are the modernization of the Minsk thermal power plants, the Vitebsk hydroelectric station, the Belarusian railways electrification, logistics centers and the joint ventures. The construction of the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park “The Great Stone” is currently under way near Minsk. As a major player in the global market, China has a positive effect on the development of the Belarusian economy. Economic partnership of Belarus and China also affect the influx of Chinese students to study at Belarusian universities. BSEU is consistently exploring the possibility of attracting citizens from the Middle Kingdom to get higher education at the First and Second levels.
The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (Deputy Head of the Eastern Region) V.L. Senyuta gave a competent assessment of the relations between the two countries and the prospects for their development. Since 2014, a new mechanism for coordinating cooperation has been developed the dean — committees and commissions have been created that are specifically involved in the activities and projects that determine the growth points of both commodity turnover and investment in the Belarusian economy. According to the speaker, today China attaches great importance to the quality of the goods, so Belarusian manufacturers have modernized the production of goods demanded by China. These are Gomselmash, Polimaster, Neman Glass Works and other manufacturers. For the current year there is a good forecast for the supply of such Belarusian products as cosmetics, furs, dosimetry devices, dairy products, IT technologies and other goods. Specialized exhibitions in both countries, extensive Internet trading platforms, regional forums allow Belarusian manufacturers to more actively promote their products to the Chinese market.
At the plenary session interesting papers were presented by A.I. Gordey, Director of the BSU Republican Institute of Sinology named after Confucius, Doctor hab., Professor (“Sinology and sinologists”); N.I. Kurganova, Professor of the BSEU Department of Romance Languages, Doctor hab (“Research Parameters of the National-Cultural Specifics of World Image”); A.A. Uspensky, Head of the Department of Systems Analysis and Strategic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, PhD (“Organization of Technology Transfer in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Prospects for Cooperation with China”); I.E. Fedotova, Head of the Department of Russian and Belarusian Languages and N.N. Skriba, Dean (“Academic Regionalism as a Constituent of Internationalization of Education”).
Then everyone had an opportunity to participate in the master class “Chinese Tea Ceremony” and taste the traditional Chinese drink. The representative of BSU Confucius Institute shared with the Belarusians the skill of making up tea aromas. In the afternoon, the conference continued its work in parallel sessions, where the participants discussed, along with the directions of Belarusian-Chinese economic cooperation, also topical issues of integration in higher education in the Eurasian space, as well as those of the dialogue of languages and cultures in the context of the internationalization of education.
(After Ecanamist № 2 (1057), February 16 2016)
