On the morning of April 22, 2022 (GMT+8), the opening Ceremony for "Seminar on Capacity Building for Judicial and Law Enforcement Officials of the Philippines" hosted by Ministry of Commerce and organized by MOFCOM Training Base for International Business Officials (Shanghai) was held online. Liu Beimin, investigator of the Foreign Economics and Cooperation Division of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and Chen Wei, executive vice dean of International Education College of Shanghai Business School attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
Since the 47th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines, the partnership between the two countries has achieved considerable development in various fields such as regional cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture, security and tourism. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the people from both sides have always been watching and helping each other, which vividly interprets the concept of the community with a shared future for mankind through practical actions. The purpose of the Seminar is to share with the Philippines China's concepts, practices and relevant policies in judicial and law enforcement cooperation, and strive to build a "three-in-one" interconnection pattern of judicial cooperation, capacity building, and personnel exchanges, and further enhance the level of judicial cooperation, expand the cooperation areas, and enable the people to share the fruits of "the Belt and Road".
In the speech, Liu Beimin mentioned that the Chinese government has been actively and steadily promoting judicial reform, while consistently attaching importance to international exchange and cooperation in this field. China has concluded 49 judicial cooperation treaties with 32 countries. In a complex and turbulent international situation, strengthening international judicial cooperation and promoting compliance and transparency in judicial enforcement has a positive effect on effectively combating and controlling crimes, promoting economic and social development in accordance with the law, maintaining good order in the international community and safeguarding the common interests of the two countries. She sincerely hopes that the Seminar would not only be a bridge that can strengthen the judicial and law enforcement cooperation between China and the Philippines to achieve new development, but also can help develop friendly relations to a new level.
Chen Wei said that, in recent years, China-Philippines relations have flourished, and the two countries have established a new position of "comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship" and the pragmatic cooperation in the fields of political security, economy, trade and humanities between the two countries has become more solid and the results are increasingly fruitful. In this context, the holding of the Seminar is a pragmatic move to implement the signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents including the Memorandum of Understanding between China and the Philippines on Jointly Promoting the Construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. As the organizer of the Seminar, SBS has made adequate arrangements based on the needs of Philippine officials. The experts will have in-depth discussions with officials in the fields of Chinese judicial system, Chinese police system and practice, analysis of criminal policy, application of community correction psychology technology, and so on.
Brendan Fugancio, Director for Human Resource Development of the Philippine Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, delivered a speech on behalf of all the trainees. He expressed his sincere thanks to the organizers of this seminar. He believes that the friendship between China and the Philippines is deeply rooted, and the Seminar is one of the fruits of further strengthening the relationship of mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries. The Seminar will help participants have a better understanding of the Chinese judicial system as well as learn from China’s best practices. This will also expose Philippine officers on alternative ways to address similar issues and challenges experienced by their own judicial and law enforcement systems.
The Seminar will last for 14 days. A total of 20 government officials from Philippine National Police, Bureau of Corrections and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and other departments will participate.
The Seminar was held at a special period of the dynamic zero COVID-19 strategy of Shanghai, and was the first online foreign aid training program of our university in 2022, marking the full launch of this year's online foreign aid training program. Facing the huge challenge of the quarantine, all our staff have taken a positive attitude and have developed and implemented a specific plan to deal with the situation. The base has communicated with the Economic and Commercial Counselor's Office of the Embassy of China in the Philippines many times, actively promoted the enrollment process, and gained an in-depth understanding of the training needs of the participants. Based on the understanding of the participants' sectors and their training needs, the project expert consultation was carried out and on this basis, experts in the field of judicial law enforcement were invited to tailor training programs for the participants. In response to the uncertain factors in the home-based situation, the base held several online conferences, continuously improved the implementation plan and the emergency plan, and conducted rehearsal exercises to provide sufficient guarantee for the smooth holding of the Seminar.
Written by: Hong Xingzhi
Photos by: Li Zheng
Reviewed by: Chen Wei
