On March 29th, 2018, the meeting for building the Center for West African Studies of UESTC was held successfully. Prof. Shen Xiaorong, Vice Chairperson of University Council of UESTC, prof. Zhao Shurong, director of the Center for West African Studies of UESTC, deputy directors of CWAS, namely,professor Li Ping, professor Zou Tao, professor Shang Jizheng and Ms Lin Min participated in the meeting.

Zhao Shurong first briefed to Shen Xiaorong about CWAS’s achievements in 2017 from how CWAS has served as  “Talent Training Base, Academic & Cultural Exchanges Platform  and Think Tank ” in the past year and what CWAS will aim to achieve for the year 2018-2019. 

Zhao Shurong said the Senior Civil Servants Training Program for West African Countries, the West African summer internship for students of UESTC and the West African teacher training  projects delivered by UESTC were the majors events to be conducted by CWAS. CWAS will host 2^ndinternational symposium for west African social and economic development from global perspective as well as symposium for 40 year China’s Opening up and its implication for African Countries.  As to the building of Think Tank , CWAS aims to launch the book series on West African studies focusing Ghana as the main research target. 

Afterwards, all the members from CWAS at UESTC discussed actively for how to contribute to the building of CWAS.