Shanghai to help train talent in Belt and Road nations
Presidents and professors from universities in Belt and Road countries sign to join the Belt and Road Regional Association of Energy and Power Universities in Shanghai on Friday to train electric power professionals.
Shanghai will cooperate with electric power universities, companies and organizations in over a dozen countries to train professionals and facilitate China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Two associations covering energy industries and universities along the Belt and Road Initiative regions were established in Shanghai on Friday during a forum on "international energy development and cooperation."
Proposed by the Shanghai University of Electric Power, the associations aim to create training platforms for electric power talent and drive innovative development of new energies, Li Hexing, president of the university, said.
Eighteen universities from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Mongolia and other Belt and Road nations, as well as museums and research institutes, have signed up to join the associations.
Electric power has become a key field of the Belt and Road development, Li said. In the last five years, Chinese power suppliers have signed nearly 500 contracts on electric engineering with Belt and Road countries, bringing total investment of US$91.2 billion. These projects have brought electricity and development opportunities to many countries with insufficient power supplies, the local company said.
"Every new electric power project requires a large number of professionals to take charge of maintenance and management," said Phatthanaphong Wanchanthuek, a professor with the Nakhon Phanom University in Thailand. "It is necessary and quite urgent to share the education and research resources with the university in Shanghai and other countries," he told the forum.
A professor with Shanghai University of Electric Power gives a lesson to electric company employees in Pakistan.
Many of the graduates from Shanghai University of Electric Power have been sent to Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan and other Belt and Road nations to help to operate and manage power projects set up by Chinese companies.
The university has also trained over 300 professionals from 20 countries including Nepal, Poland, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Thailand. It has also recruited over 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students from these nations, most of whom have been working as core employees for China-invested electric power projects in their countries, according to the university.
Under the new agreements signed in Shanghai on Friday, the university will train more local staff at electric companies in Jordan and Iraq, as well as establishing foreign internship centers in Indonesia by the end of the year.
"Thanks to the training scheme from Shanghai, my salary is four times higher than my family members after being trained by the university for three months," said a Vietnamese employee surnamed Chan working at an electric power company in Vietnam.
