On September 22, the signing ceremony for the cooperation between Tsinghua University School of Public Policy & Management (SPPM）and Guilin Municipal People's Government was held at the 2019 China-ASEAN International Forum on Innovation and Cooperation for Sustainable Development. At the opening ceremony, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on behalf of both parties by Lan Yan, Vice Mayor of Guilin, and Zhu Xufeng, Associate Dean of SPPM, Tsinghua University and Executive Director of the Institute of Sustainable Development Goals of Tsinghua University (Tsinghua SDG Institute).

Lan Yan and Zhu Xufeng sign the MoU

In 2016, in order to promote the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the State Council issued the “Program for the Construction of Innovation Demonstration Zones for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in China”, which makes it clear that China will create about 10 national innovation demonstration zones for the agenda for sustainable development during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and create a number of replicable and scalable models of sustainable development. In 2018, the State Council approved the construction of a national sustainable development agenda innovation demonstration zone in Guilin.

Tsinghua University has been actively participating in the promotion and implementation of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), taking the initiative to carry out talent training, scientific research, international cooperation and exchanges related to sustainable development, and actively promoting the exchange of experience and dissemination of ideas in the field of SDGs, in an effort to contribute to the promotion of global sustainable development.

The signing of the MoU between the SPPM and Guilin Municipal People's Government will give full play to the intellectual, resource and technological advantages of SPPM to promote the construction of the National Sustainable Development Agenda Innovation Demonstration Zone in Guilin. According to the MoU, the two sides will combine practical, scientific research cooperation, resource sharing, academic exchanges and other aspects of cooperation to carry out in-depth cooperation.