On the afternoon of April 15th, 2022, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Model United Nations Conference 2022 (SJTUMUNC2022), hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) officially kicked off online. Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres sent a letter of congratulations and delivered his message via a video link, and Secretary of the CPC SJTU Committee Yang Zhenbin gave an online speech as well. Many students from more than 20 universities around the world remotely joined the conference, to speak out for global governance and contribute their wisdom to the 2030 sustainable development goals.
António Guterres encouraged the students to jointly create a future for global governance in his speech.
After extending his warm welcome to the participants, Yang Zhenbin stressed that internationalization is the prevailing trend for higher education. Facing multiple challenges presented to mankind, it’s more imperative than ever for SJTU, he said, to build a huge pool of innovative talents with a global vision, the intercultural background, as well as the ability to interact and cooperate with the international community. He encouraged the students to gain a deeper understanding of a community of a shared future for mankind through the conference and become the cornerstones for China’s development and even play an internationally significant role in the future.
Secretary of the CPC Committee of the SJTU School of International and Public Affairs Zhang Xiaoyi said that it’s been 12 years since the SJTU Model United Nations Association was founded, which worked meticulously for building a high-level and nationally-influential brand and saw many students performing successfully on national and even international stages. She expected the participants to keep their motherland in mind, think globally and take an active part in promoting the reform of the global governance system and building a community of a shared future for mankind.
Executive Secretary-General of the conference Lu Shihan expressed her sincere gratitude on behalf of all the staff of the conference to all the leaders, faculty members and participants who had provided their support, and called on students of all universities and colleges in China to contribute their wisdom to the international development of the country.
The conference had four English sessions and one Chinese session, with a shared focus on discussing global issues in the context of great changes and major challenges in the new era.
The participants took a group photo.
Associate Professor Wei Yingjie from the SJTU School of International and Public Affairs was also invited to the conference to deliver a lecture for the participants.