On July 13th, the award ceremony of the first round of “Tianyuan Scholarship” of Shanghai Maritime University (SMU)-Ningxia Tianyuan Logistics Group was held in the administrative building of SMU. Prof. SHI Xin, Vice President of SMU, Mr. Liu Jun, Chairman of Tianyuan Logistics Group, teachers and students from the International Education College (IEC) and the College of Transport and Communications, and representatives from Tianyuan Logistics Group attended the ceremony.
Vice President Shi Xin, on behalf of the university, thanked Tianyuan Logistics Group for their support to international students from Ghana. He said SMU, as a multi-disciplinary university featuring shipping, logistics and marine disciplines, has made great progress in international teaching in the recent decades. The Ghana Class (SMU-RMU ( Regional Maritime University ) B.Sc. Program in Logistics Management) is to serve the Belt and Road Initiative of China to solve the shortage of shipping logistics professionals in West and Central African Region, and to successfully explore the cooperation with local universities in Ghana. For more than eight years, the SMU-RMU BLM Program, which had cultivated many students, was widely recognized in Ghana, and produced great social effects. SMU hope to have more in-depth cooperation with Tianyuan Logistics Group. Vice-President Shi Xin also encouraged Ghanaian students to cherish the opportunities and study harder.
Mr. Liu Jun introduced the history and current development of Ningxia Tianyuan Logistics Group Co. Ltd., an affiliate to Tianyuan Manganese Industry Group, which acquired Ghana Manganese Mining Company in 2016. He emphasized that as a leading enterprise, Tianyuan Logistics Group transport a large amount of ores from Ghana to China every year. The establishment of the “Tianyuan Scholarship” at SMU aims to feed back the local social development of Ghana and practice the concept of “Work Together to Create a Community of Shared Future for Mankind”. He expressed warm congratulations to the award-winning students and welcomed them to join Tianyuan Logistics Group after graduation, which will benefit the future cooperation and development between China and Ghana.
In the end of the ceremony，Mr. Shi and Mr. Liu jointly presented awards to the award-winning teachers and students.
(At the beginning of 2018, SMU and Ningxia Tianyuan Logistics Group Co., Ltd. reached a strategic cooperation framework agreement. Both sides agreed on in-depth cooperation on the construction of international students’ internship bases, the establishment of scholarships, and the nurturing and career development of graduates. Under the strategic cooperation framework agreement, Ningxia Tianyuan Logistics Group Co., Ltd. set up the “Tianyuan Scholarship” at SMU in 2018 to sponsor outstanding international students of SMU-RMU BLM Program, or SMU master and PhD candidates who used to be graduates from SMU-RMU BLM Program, and excellent SMU lecturers involved in the teaching of SMU-RMU BLM Program.)
