Xi'an Jiaotong University to boost ties with Central Asian colleges

By Ma Lie in Xi'an (chinadaily.com.cn)

Xi'an Jiaotong University based in Xi'an, the capital of Northwest Shaanxi province, is focusing more on promoting educational and research cooperation with the universities in Central Asian countries.

Recently the school sent a delegation to nine universities in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, which are all along the ancient Silk Road, a trade and cultural exchange channel launched more than 2,000 years ago with Xi'an as the starting point linking Europe and China. Formed with the experts at Xi'an Jiaotong University's Silk Road Economic Belt Research Collaborative Innovation Center, International Department, Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, International Education Institute, Low School and Humanities College, the delegation talked with the nine foreign universities for cooperation on personnel training and scientific research.

According to Song Yuxia, deputy director of International Education Institute of Xi'an Jiaotong University and member of the delegation, the team signed a number of cooperative agreements with the nine foreign universities and held project investigation and forums to further promote the education exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese university and foreign universities.

Salikhov Nurali Nazarovich, principal of Russian-Tasmania Loughborough University, said that he hoped that the universities along the Silk Road economic belt could further enhance their cooperation in education and scientific research, in order to contribute more to the regional development.