From October 29 to November 6, the training program of integrated management courses for MBA candidates of the Germany Advanced Institute College of Economics was held at Shanghai Administration Institute. The training class consisted of 16 senior and intermediate managers from famous German enterprises, who engaged in the fields of food manufacturing, art design, IT service, automobile spare parts, mechanical engineering, flat glass, education, etc.

    Provost MEI Lihong met the members and attended the graduation ceremony. She communicated with them about the training and issued the certificate of completion.

    At the opening ceremony, Ms. Heidi Hohensohn, the class teacher and professor of the Germany Advanced Institute College of Economics, gave a speech on behalf of the class. She said: “Thank you very much for offering us the opportunity to come to Shanghai Administration Institute again. This training program has been going on for ten years. It was the sixth time for me to lead a trainees’ group to Shanghai. I witnessed the rapid development of Shanghai Municipality and Shanghai Administration Institute, and I could find many new things when I came here each time.” Shanghai, as a weather vane of Chinas future, is meaningful and significant for them to understand Shanghai and China. When we came to Shanghai for the first time ten years ago, they only had business contacts with Shanghai. However, at least one third of the members have already established cooperation with Shanghai or other cities in China. Last year, one member transferred the work focus to China and settled in Shanghai after the training. The current members are senior managers or owners of the companies. Training contents offered by Shanghai Administration Institute are more closely aligned with the reality, so as to help them look at Chinas development opportunities in a long-term and strategic perspective, and face the urgent problems to be solved.

    The training program was carried out in three ways, including special lectures, on-site teachings and discussions among trainees, and three major modules, i.e., economic construction, cultural construction and ecological civilization construction, were set up in the training curriculum. The members were organized to attend such lectures as Traditional Chinese Culture, Contemporary Economic Development & Opportunities of China, Decision-Making and Management of Major Projects, New Ideas and New Pattern of the “the Belt and Road” Strategy; and they went to Chinese Wushu Museum to experience the charm of Chinese martial arts; visited Shanghai Shipyard Co., Ltd. to understand the current status of manufacturing industry development in China; looked over Chongming Dongtan National Nature Reserve to see about ecological project of wetland restoration; and went to Xuhui Binjiang Innovation Culture Base for understanding key initiatives made by Shanghai government for cultural industry.

    In the summary and exchange activities of the training program, all members were divided into several groups (each with 2 or 3 members), and they collaborated with each other to sort and integrate each course and review the entire training contents. In the group presentation, members talked about their learning experience in the courses, described the future plan based on their current work, made a detailed exposition in terms of impression on China and Shanghai before and after the training, their feelings towards China and Germany after training and thinking about Germanys future development, and shared their training outcomes.

    Some trainees commented: "I have been to many countries and engaged in similar industries in many cities, but after I visited Shanghai Shipyard Co., Ltd., although workers there faced hard working conditions and their rewards were not high, I could feel their pride, responsibility and accountability from their talks and smiles. This might be the spirit of contemporary Chinese people, and the reason why China maintains prosperity and development”; “Ecological Project of Wetland Restoration in Dongtan is an unimaginable huge project for us"; "It is difficult to describe how wonderful this training is in limited language. I am very impressed by abundant information, well-organized process and efficient team, and I am very proud to become a member of the training program! "