From October 7th to 11th, Professor Li Jing of School of Economics, and doctoral students Rahul Gupta, Vincent Mughwai, were invited to attend 17th Global Sustainable Manufacturing International Conferences (GCSM) in Shanghai on behalf of CUEB. The conference was hosted by Tongji Unversity, Technical University of Berlin, and Fraunhofer IPK. Representatives of academia and industry from 27 countries attended the conference.

From Oct. 7th to 8th, Li and her students participated in Neoget, a student workshop of the Sustainable Development Project, and discussed the Sustainable Development Goals with students and faculty from South Africa, the University of Kentucky, and Technical University of Berlin. The main issues of the sustainable development of manufacturing industry were shared, and the current research findings were discussed, as well as ways for young students to participate in the Sustainable Manufacturing Forum. Li introduced the development, disciplinary advantages and international cooperation of CUEB, in particular the Roundtable Forum and the International Student Academic Forum hosted by School of Economics, and achievements of the students’ participation in the NeoGET research.

From Oct. 9th to 11th, Li gave a keynote speech titled Common Development: Understanding Belt & Road Initiative in Context of New Normal. The background, main objectives, mechanisms, achievements and possible of China's "Belt & Road Initiative" were shared. The speech was well received by the delegates and fully discussed during the meeting.

There was also a Student Session, during which our student representatives presented their research achievements with other students from universities and research institutions in eight countries around the world. Rahul Gupta and Vincent Mughwai, members of NeoGet, explained the understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals, the integration of the goals, the localization of the goals and the core measures to achieve them. Rahul analyzed the causes of extreme poverty among Indian farmers, and explained why food providers suffer from hunger from an economic perspective. Vincent shared the special causes of poverty in Tanzania and elaborated on advises for poverty reduction from a sectoral and institutional perspective.

Representatives from universities, CIRP experts and industry who attended the meeting spoke highly of our students' research achievements, proposed further research fields, encouraged students to carry out research, thus to provide a platform and an opportunity to promote inter-university cooperation around the world. A visit to the Yangshan Port in Shanghai was also arranged to give participants a closer look at the integration of modern technology with manufacturing.

The 2020 Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM) will be held in Berlin, with another Student Session, at which our delegation will share the latest research with experts and scholars around the world.