on the morning of august 24, the 2019 class opening ceremony and seminar of tsinghua-cityu mpa-emba program was held in tsinghua university. way kuo, president of city university of hong kong, yang bin, vice president and provost of tsinghua university, jiang xiaojuan, dean of tsinghua sppm, yan houmin, dean of the college of business, and zhao baige, chairman of the expert committee of the belt and road international think tank, chinese academy of social sciences, wang tianyi, president of china everbright international and co-director of the center for public-private partnership at tsinghua university, and han zhifeng, deputy director of the investment department of the national development and reform commission, as well as other leaders and guests attended the event. the event was hosted by yang yongheng, associate dean of tsinghua sppm.
speech by way kuo
way kuo, on behalf of the city university of hong kong, congratulated the successful launch of the program and thanked all the guests for their support. as a 1972 graduate of taiwan's hsinchu tsinghua university, he shared his story of tsinghua study with the students. he used the classic allusion of mencius and king of the kingdom of wei: "why should the king speak of profit? there is also benevolence and righteousness." to tell the students that the growth of personal wealth is not the ultimate goal, but to combine wealth with benevolence and righteousness, to combine entrepreneurship with public values, to combine personal interests with social welfare, and to promote social progress. he hoped that the students would straighten their thoughts, cultivate their personality, study carefully, conquer the obstacles of language and writing, and achieve the collision of thoughts.
speech by yang bin
in his speech, yang bin expressed his warm congratulations to the participants of the first mpa-emba class and welcomed them to study in tsinghua campus. he put forward three expectations and requirements for the students: first, to calm down, be thirsty for knowledge, absorb nutrition from tsinghua's profound cultural accumulation, and forge ahead bravely towards the goal of high-level compound talents; the second is to strengthen idea exchanges, learn from each other's strong points and explore various cooperation opportunities to achieve mutual benefit and win-win. the third is to adjust the mentality, improve the realm of life, stick to the reason why you started, be brave in innovation, change the existing way of thinking and rethink the future development of the industry. he hoped that through more than two years of learning and being cultivated by the university motto of “self-discipline and social commitment” and the spirit of “actions speak louder than words”, the students would open a new window for their career and a brand-new page for their life.
speech by zhao baige
in her speech, zhao baige highly acknowledged the innovative significance of mpa-emba program for training high-level compound talents, and in retrospect of her own learning experience, she shared with the students her thoughts and opinions on the new globalization, the fourth industrial revolution, bri and other contemporary hot topics. she hoped that the students could become the most needed high-level compound talents in the current era through the program training, and strive for innovation in program promotion and technology research and development, so as to promote the prosperity and progress of bri countries and regions and help the sustainable development of the global economy and society.
speech by wang tianyi
as one of the enablers of the mpa-emba program, wang tianyi shared with the students the significance of studying the mpa-emba program and focusing on ppp based on his long-term working experience in government and ppp practice. he pointed out that the value of mpa-emba education lies in handling the relationship between government and business or between government and enterprises that needs to be handled well but is not easy to do so in the reality. social management is the bounden duty of the government, and letting the market play a decisive role in the allocation of resources is the mission of enterprises. the government provides public goods while the private sector provides private goods. when the government provides public goods, due to the lack of funds and efficiency, and with the aid of cooperation with the private sector, ppp mode has emerged. there is no doubt that mpa-emba education will provide mixed knowledge and comprehensive capabilities for both government and enterprises engaged in ppp model research and application. he hoped that the students would cherish the classroom opportunities, learn from each other and make common progress.
speech by han zhifeng
han zhifeng shared his experience of returning to school for graduate study after working. he believed that learning with practical experience could achieve a comprehensive understanding of theory and practice and a deeper and more vivid understanding of book knowledge. he pointed out that it was a rare opportunity to improve when students returned to school and study with social experiences. he hoped that the students would accumulate and refine their practical experience, reorganize and establish a more objective logic system, and form their own methods and theoretical framework for analyzing things under the strict academic atmosphere and from the perspectives of public management and business management.
wang shouqing made a statement
wang shouqing, hief expert of center for public-private partnership at tsinghua university, spoke on behalf of the faculty. he shared his experience of learning and teaching in tsinghua university with the students and hoped that everyone would cherish the opportunity to learning in tsinghua university and city university of hong kong. he suggested that the students should pay attention to strengthening the training of thinking and methodology in their learning, to improving the ability of self-learning, application and creation of knowledge, and cultivating themselves into compound talents. students should combine their own interests, job responsibilities and experience, do a good job in selecting topics for graduation thesis by combing with their own practices, and apply appropriate methods in thesis work, so as to improve the ability to discover, analyze and solve problems. he wished the students could learn something through this program and become the pride of the university in the future.
speech by hong weimin
hong weimin, a representative of the 2019 freshmen, said in his speech that he was very happy to join the first class of the mpa-emba program. he also thanked the university and teachers for their hard work in knowledge delivery and teaching arrangement. the curriculum arrangement and setting of the program could satisfy the students' desire for new knowledge. he said that he would strictly comply with the requirements of the program and curriculum, pursue knowledge and apply it to practical work, so as to live up to the expectations of the university and teachers.
yang yongheng hosted the opening ceremony
at the opening ceremony, another ceremony was also held to present the letter of appointment for program advisors. on behalf of the program organizers, yan houmin awarded the letters to zhao baige, han zhifeng and wang tianyi. the program advisors are top experts and practitioners from the field of policy making and academic community and will provide advice and guidance in curriculum design and program development.
ceremony for awarding letter of appointment to advisors
more than 50 people attended the opening ceremony, including yu wayne w., assistant dean of cityu’s college of business, hao gang, deputy director of international cooperation and exchange office of tsinghua university, yangqingmei, deputy director of hong kong, macao and taiwan office of tsinghua university, sun fu, director of tsinghua university graduate school training office, zhu xufeng, associate dean of tsinghua sppm, xie jin, deputy secretary of the party committee of tsinghua sppm, mu ling, assistant dean of tsignhua sppm, as well as students of the first mpa-emba class.
group photo
after the opening ceremony, a round-table seminar was held, which was chaired by yan houming, and guests such as way kuo, han zhifeng and wang tianyi held dialogues and exchanges with participants of the first mpa-emba program around the topic of “the belt and road initiative” construction and ppp practice.
on-site round-table discussion
before the event, yang, bin and jiang, xiaojuan met with the guests in the vip room of the main building of tsinghua university.
yang, bin and jiang, xiaojuan met with the guests
in order to promote the application of ppp mode in the countries and regions along the belt and road, boost infrastructure construction in the region and promote prosperity and progress, tsinghua university and city university of hong kong signed a cooperation agreement on august 27, 2018 to jointly launch the tsinghua university-city university of hong kong mpa-emba program. this program will take the full advantage of faculties, disciplines and international brands of tsinghua university and city university of hong kong, deeply integrate the knowledge system of public management and business administration, adhere to the orientation of internationalization, interdisciplinary and combined cultivation. this program will cultivate ppp high-level professionals who are familiar with the belt and road initiative and the national and regional conditions along the belt and road, master the knowledge of modern public management and business administration, have both public value and entrepreneurship, and meet the demand of the belt and road initiative for internationalized and compound high-level talents. this program is also the first mpa-mba program in asia after the john f. kennedy school of government and the business school jointly launched the mpa-mba program in 2008. the first cohort comes from eight countries and regions across the world, with an average age of 41 years old and an average working experience of 17 years.