Ｅｎｖｏｙｓ ｏｆ Ｃｈｉｎａ－Ｎｏｒｗａｙ Ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓｈｉｐ

Ｌｉｎ　Ｎａｎ

In the summer of 2008, the seventh student delegation of Norwegian School of Management BI consisting of 28 members and headed by Jan Evensmo, associate professor of the School and honorary citizen of Shandong, visited Shandong Province.

The visit to China by the student delegations of Norwegian School of Management BI started after the visit to Norway by Wu Aiying, deputy secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2001, during which the Shandong Provincial Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Norway-China Friendship Association (NCFA) signed an agreement on friendly cooperation. In 2002, NCFA President Jan Evensmo suggested that students of Norwegian School of Management BI visit Shandong as the start of the implementation of the agreement. His suggestion received positive response from Shandong. Now the School has listed the visit to Shandong as an elective course of social practice and organized seven delegations to the province over the past seven years without interruption. The number of students participating in the project grew every year. Even in 2003 when SARS epidemic hit China and the number of people entering China and Shandong dropped drastically, there was still a big increase in the number of students taking part in the project. This clearly showed the students acceptance of the project.

It was the first time for all the participating students to visit China and Shandong was the destination of their China visit. This enabled them to forge special feelings for Shandong and gain more knowledge of the province.

The visit has enhanced understanding and friendship. Now over 200 people in Norway have made the 3-week visit to China with Shandong as the main part of their visit. They have acquired perceptual knowledge of the province and forged profound friendship with the people there.

The visit has promoted exchanges and cooperation. The visit of the student delegations over the past seven years has given impetus to bilateral exchanges in all fields and led to cooperation in many areas. In governmental exchange, it has facilitated visits to Norway by leading members of Shandong Province and the establishment of long-term stable links between the Shandong Provincial Peoples Congress and the Norwegian Parliament. In economic cooperation, some students came with projects to Shandong to look for cooperation opportunities after they started working. For instance, plant test for the growing medium produced from coconut husks being carried out by the company COCOPEL at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, if successful, will be popularized in the province, which will greatly improve the quality of in-house culture medium, reduce the cost and upgrade the farming technology. In cultural exchange, Shandong Province participation in the China Culture Festival in Norway can also be attributed to the bridging role played by members of the student delegations. In education cooperation, the Norwegian students social practice carried out in Shandong for seven consecutive years has enabled Norwegian School of Management BI to have a comprehensive understanding of Shandong and built up friendship with it. The School will send a delegation to Shandong this year on an inspection tour of its higher learning institutions, hoping to find a university or a college in the province for all-directional cooperation. It will be the first cooperation partner the School seeks in China.