On Wednesday, October 12, a workshop themed “Cross-Border E-Commerce and Mobile Payments in Lebanon” was launched, organized by Shandong International Vocational College in China, under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and with the participation of the Arab Chinese Cooperation and Development Association in Lebanon, which was via the Zoom platform for twenty days. And over two sessions before and after noon.
More than 25 trainees from Lebanon participated in the workshop, including representatives from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture in Lebanon.
Mr. Diao Jian Dong
The workshop began with an opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Beirut time, moderated by the host of the workshop, Director of the Training Office at the College, Ms. Wang Baohong. The President of the College, Mr. Diao Jiandong, gave a speech in which he first welcomed the participants and trainers, then gave an overview of the commercial development in Shandong Province, which has a population of 100 million. He referred to the province’s GDP, which amounted to 1.3 trillion US dollars, ranked the third in the country, adding that due to the establishment and improvement of the mobile payment system, online retail sales in China amounted to be about 186 billion US dollars for the year 2021.
Dong noted that Shandong Province “adheres to the concept of openness first, market leading, reserve and tolerance and coordinated development.” Dong estimated the province’s total exports and imports at 14 billion US dollars due to various positive factors. Then, Mr. Dong presented an overview of Shandong College, which is one of the high-quality colleges and currently has 11,000 students, where the graduated students have established more than 3,000 foreign trade companies, the value of each export and import exceeds 3 million, including the largest Chinese tire exporter, which has an annual value of 1.3 billion US dollars.
Speaking from his office, president mentioned the college’s activities at the international level, noting that 15,000 trainees from 130 countries have benefited, with the total number of courses reaching more than 300. Dong added: The college has laid a solid foundation for cooperation with Lebanon, and in 2018, it held a course of expertise at the ministerial and parliamentary levels in Lebanon. The college also signed a cooperation agreement with the Arab Chinese Cooperation and Development Association, which opened up prospects for cooperation and resulted in many activities.
Mr. Qassem Tofailli
After that, Mr. Qassem Tufaili, President of the Arab Chinese Cooperation and Development Association, welcomed everyone and delivered a comprehensive speech in which he touched on the distinguished and ancient relationship with China, Lebanon and the Arab world, and the association’s relationship with Chinese activities related to development projects. Tufaili said that the vision of cooperation between the association and Shandong College was based on the belief in the importance of studying and learning from the development experience in China, noting “what we have witnessed for ourselves seeing many college’s graduates leading many Chinese companies and institutions.” Tofaili recommended to the participants from Lebanon to seize this opportunity to learn from a wide range of expert lecturers, stressing the importance of the workshop and the rich program it contains. Tufaili stressed the keenness of the Arab Chinese Cooperation and Development Association to develop and strengthen communication between Chinese and Arab organizations at various levels and submitted a set of suggestions.
Then he talked about the “Belt and Road” and “Global Development” initiatives presented by China, considering that they constitute an important and valuable opportunity that opened new horizons for our Arab societies to benefit from the Chinese experience in economic and social development, and extended to broader scopes, including poverty reduction, combating epidemics. Providing health and prevention, agricultural development and modernization to face the consequences of climate change. Tufaili pointed out that the main link between all those areas is the advancement of technology transfer projects and efforts, which in turn requires strengthening partnerships with universities and various training and qualification institutes such as Shandong College. Tufaili concluded his speech by thanking the college and its administrators in Shandong Province, and wished the participants and trainers success, promising to work on spreading these training courses to a number of Arab countries in the coming period.
Mr. Shui Zhengguo
The afternoon session included a long lecture by Dr. Shui Zhengguo from Beijing University of Foreign Studies, an old friend of Lebanon, stressing that “Lebanon will overcome its crises, and it is a country that if you don’t know or visit, your knowledge of the Arab world remains incomplete.” The Lecture by Dr. Shui was entitled “An Overview of National Conditions in China” and expanded on the review of the historical development of China through the following titles: China as a large and ancient country, Chinese wisdom and modern China’s history, China as a beautiful and modern country, in addition to China as a rapidly developing and multi-faceted country.
