The University Consortium of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is established in Xiamen, Fujian province, Oct 20. [Photo/xmnn.cn]
The University Consortium of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road was established in Xiamen, Fujian province, with the opening ceremony held Oct 20.
Zhu Zhiwen, vice-minister of China's Ministry of Education, said at the opening ceremony that the newly built consortium will serve as an important platform where universities along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road can communicate and cooperate with each other.
Zhu said he hoped that a mechanism for long-term cooperation will be established by the consortium in the near future to help to improve cooperation on higher education between countries and regions along the maritime silk road.
The consortium consists of more than 60 universities from 17 countries and regions, including Britain's University of Sheffield, France's Sorbonne University, Australia's University of Melbourne, New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
China has decided to extend its visa waiver policy to ordinary passport holders from Canada and the United Kingdom starting from Feb 17.
Forty-one new port-of-entry duty-free shops have been established nationwide, with Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport, Xiamen Wutong Passenger Wharf, and Xiamen International Cruise Center included on the list.
