On December 14, commissioned by the Training Center of Chinese Academy of Governance, SAI held a seminar for Russian intermediate and senior civil servants. The team was composed of 26 intermediate and senior officials from various functional departments of Russia, including the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture and Government of Moscow. 10 of the team members were bureau directors and 16 division heads.

    In the morning, SHEN Wei, SAIs executive vice president, met the members of the seminar and gave them an introduction of SAI, accompanied by the heads of the Foreign Affairs Division and the Division of External Training. Associate Professor LI Meng from the Economics Department gave a lecture on the theme of "Shanghais Economic Development" for the trainees, who actively exchanged ideas with LI and had a heated discussion with him about many issues, such as Shanghais policies in favor of foreign-funded enterprises, demolition of old buildings in Shanghai and relocation of the residents, environmental protection and housing mortgage loans. On the afternoon of the same day, the trainees went to Linfen Sub-district in Jingan District to learn about the construction of service-oriented Party organizations at the grassroots level. They also experienced various traditional Chinese cultural activities, including tea art, ink painting and Shanghai opera.

    Mr. EREMIN Vladimir, head of the seminar and executive deputy president of the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University, delivered a speech on behalf of the team. He said, this was the third time he led a delegation to Shanghai and SAI, and every time he could feel the changes of SAI and the warmth of Shanghai; as Shanghai is the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party, the importance of SAI is self-evident; their team members from different functional departments of Russia are a young and energetic team; during their stay in China, they learned the core ideas of the 19th CPC National Congress and “The Belt and Road" strategy; they are very interested in the achievements China has made so far; their experience here will help them learn more about the achievements and experience of Chinas reform and opening up.