The “Belt & Road” African Studies Alliance was established in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, on October 27, 2018. Thirty-four institutes, including University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Peking University, Tsinghua University were among the founding members for the alliance. As one of the initiating institutes, representatives of Center for West African Studies(CWAS) of UESTC attended the inaugural conference.

On behalf of the sponsors for the alliance, Professor Liu Jisen, executive dean of the African research institute of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, delivered his welcome speech in the conference. He said that the alliance would serve as  information sharing platform and facilitate international cooperation projects on African studies given the context of the “Belt & Road” .

During the preparatory meeting of “Belt & Road” African Studies Alliance, the first  council members for the alliance were appointed. CWAS of UESTC was among one of the standing member organization of “Belt & Road” African Studies Alliance. Professor Zhao, director of CWAS was appointed the deputy standing member for  “Belt & Road” African Studies Alliance, effective from 2018-2021.

In the first session of Academic Seminar. Professor Zhao delivered her keynote speech titled ”Risks and Countermeasures of Sichuan Enterprises’ International Industrial Capacity Cooperation with Africa”. She firstly introduced the research background of the project, then she illustrated the identification and analysis of major problems relating to public service delivery based on the results collected from questionnaires. Then some suggestions and countermeasures were proposed to have the public service delivery improved initiated from the decentralization in Ghana.