On the morning of 6th, July, the opening Ceremony of the 2016 Caribbean States Economic and Trade Ministers’ Seminar was held in SFTC. The Seminar was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and hosted by SFTC. 15 senior government officials from the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Panama, the Republic of Suriname, the Republic of El Salvador, Grenada and the Republic of Senegal took part in the seminar. Ms Lv Wei, Deputy Director General of Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, and Mr. Huang Dengping, Vice President of China Academy for International Business Officials delivered speeches on the opening ceremony. On behalf of the trainees, Mr. Ivan Llosa, chairman of the Fair Trade Committee of the Dominican Republic, gave a speech. Mr. Yang Mingang, Party Secretary of SFTC also attended the ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by President Diao Jiandong.

In the 10-day seminar, participants will be briefed by Chinese experts on some hot economic and trade issues such as China’s reform and opening-up and its socio-economic development, China’s foreign economic cooperation and the Going global strategies, the facilitation and supporting policies for international trade and investment, and etc. They will also attend the 15th SINOCES, pay visits to Hisense Group, Qingdao Port and participate in other economic and trade activities. Study visits to Beijing and Shanghai will also be included in the seminar.

SFTC not only focuses on talent cultivation for international trade business, but also hosts various comprehensive training programs for ChinaAID, the only institute of its kind in Shandong Province. Since 2012, SFTC, together with other institutes of higher education and enterprises, has organized 30 ChinaAID training programs. The training activities cover the fields of economics and trade, agriculture, information and management, etc. More than 844 personnel from 74 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and South Pacific Region have participated in the training. SFTC has also organized and pioneered in overseas training programs.