From Jan. 28th to Feb. 3rd, led by the LZU President Zhou Xuhong, the delegation composed of related personnel from Foreign Affairs Office, President’s Office, and Institute of Arid Agroecology, visited the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and some universities and institutes in the Republic of Kenya.
After talking with Dr. Achim Steiner, director-general of UNEP, divisions of Environmental Policy Implementation, Regional Cooperation, and Education respectively, both sides exchanged ideas in terms of the fields, ways and content about cooperation and signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). According to the MOU, in the future we will establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with the UNEP by means of conducting the cooperation in running schools, participating in the cooperation and communication between governments, and climate change research, ecosystem management, water management and community management.
LZU will be invited to participate in such high-level academic activities as the conferences organized by the UNEP on education sustainability and GUPES, talent training, cooperative publishing, holding international conferences. It is the first time for LZU as one of the two domestic universities to establish formal cooperation with the institutions directly under the United Nations, and sign the MOU, marking that our school took another important step on the road to become a world famous high-level research-oriented university.
President Zhou also met with Ambassador Liu Guangyuan in the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Kenya, visited Kenya Agricultural University, Agricultural Research Institute, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Research, Nairobi University and Southeast University, and signed the MOUs respectively with Kenya Agricultural University and Southeast University and an agreement on undergraduate exchange with Nairobi University, which will play a positive role in broadening the level of international cooperation, deepening exchanges and cooperation with African countries, and promoting the discipline construction and talent cultivating at LZU.
On January 28th, President Zhou investigated Katumani Dry-Land Water-Saving Agricultural Experiment Base, visited our university's teachers and students, encouraging the team members to overcome difficulties and successfully complete all the work and tasks. During the investigation, President Zhou accepted an interview with Xinhua News Agency, holding that with a long history for the relationship between China and Africa, the Chinese government attaches great importance to developing the traditional friendship with African countries; as a national key university, LZU must strengthen the cooperation and communication with African universities and research institutions to construct itself as the world famous high-level research-oriented university catering to the national strategic needs.
