On July 7, Shanghai Administration Institute had a video exchange with the Higher School of Cadres of the State and Government of Cuba (ESCEG). Professor MEI Lihong, vice president of SAI, and Dr. Fernández, rector of ESCEG, attended the meeting and delivered speeches, respectively. Associate Professor WANG Zhongqi from the Public Administration Teaching and Research Department of SAI gave a lecture on “the Key Structure of Governance by Shanghai’s Government and the Innovative Actions Taken in Its Governance” for the “Shanghai Government Management” class of ESCEG.
 

　　Professor MEI recollected how the Institute started giving lectures to the Cuban trainees, how the delivery of lectures had developed and what outcome had been produced. She also talked about how well the online communication between the two sides had developed over the past three years, despite our time difference and other technology problems. It has become a successful international project of the Institute and a featured project for bilateral cooperation. Professor MEI said that the Institute would continue to send teachers with rich experience and international vision to participate in the exchanges with Cuba.

　　Dr. Fernández said that this was the fifth online lecture given by Shanghai Administration Institute and that more than 130 trainees included government administrators and researchers from universities and institutes. He also showed confidence in the future video exchanges and co-publishing between the two sides.

　　Associate Professor WANG Zhongqi started his lecture with an overview of Shanghai’s population, construction, logistics, transportation, and enterprises, and then introduced the Shanghai government structure from three aspects: the Party-government structure, the hierarchical structure, and the vertical-and-horizontal structure. In the final part, he used examples to illustrate the innovation in Shanghai’s government administration in three areas: optimizing the business environment through reforms to streamline the government, delegate power, and improve government services, improving government services through digital transformation, and promoting the orderly development of the local economy and society through the rule of law. With sound statistical support, Professor WANG gave a vivid illustration of governance in Shanghai, logical in flow and well-articulated, which was of great value for the management of the Cuban government.

　　After the lecture, the two sides also talked about the next online lecture.