The Ministry of Commerce and Peking University jointly held the graduation ceremony for the first batch of master candidates on July 6. Attending were graduate students from 16 developing countries like Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Ethiopia. Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative Yu Jianhua, President of Peking University Lin Jianhua, President of Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development Lin Yifu and the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China attended and addressed the graduation ceremony. Also attending were over 200 people including foreign ambassadors to China, government delegates and teachers and students from the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development.

Yu Jianhua said in his address that President Xi Jinping announced to establish the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development at the 70th anniversary session of the United Nations, depicting a blueprint of deepening south-south cooperation and seeking common prosperity. The Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development was officially founded in April 2016 and it enrolled the first batch of 48 students for doctoral and master programs . Over the past one year, students here have been actively engaged in study and discussions in class, visited and studiedo different places in China and witnessed major events like the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. They have felt China’s rapid economic development, robust social vigor and sustainable improvement of people’s life in an intuitive way, witnessed the successful practice of the Chinese characteristics development path on their own and genuinely perceived the spirits of China’s development.

Yu Jianhua said all students are the precious wealth of the Institute and they will be the new force to promote the South-South cooperation and seek for common prosperity. He hoped that when the students returned to their own countries, they would continue to be concerned about the South-South cooperation as always, support the Belt and Road Initiative through extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, promote their country’s development strategy to dock with the Belt and Road Initiative in their own region and jointly build closer cooperation and more prosperous future.

The Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development was officially launched in the National School of Development of Peking University in April 2016, aiming to become the most attractive research institution of national development, the most potential high-end talents’ incubation base for the developing countries and the most vigorous exchange platform for the developing countries, providing talents to support and promote the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and advance the developing countries to realize the modernization of national governance system and governance ability.