By Sarah Yonghui Pusavat

Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management was graced with the presence of the His Excellency Carlos Urrea the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Colombia, His Excellency Crisian Tiegert Castaneda the Plenipotentiary Minister of Colombia and Professor Joquien Urrea from Columbia National University. Our special guests were accompanied by Ms Annie WU the Director of the Hong Kong World Trade Center Association, SEM’s Assistant Dean Professor GAO Jian, senior MBA staff and student representatives.

The meeting marked the continued strong relations between MBA education programs between China and South America. To date Tsinghua University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile have been conducting annual short-term exchange programs, which give Tsinghua MBA students learning opportunities to learn about business in Chile – and vice versa.

His Excellency Carlos Urrea expressed his interest to strengthen the China-Colombia bonds; in particular he voiced his aspirations to extend the existing Tsinghua-Chile exchange programs to encompass. He hopes that the Tsinghua-Chile exchange program which begun in collaboration with Pontifical Catholic University of Chile would grow to include exchanges with top universities in Colombia, as well as provide students with country-exchange internship opportunities. Both parties hope that there can be increased commercial transactions and cultural exchanges between Tsinghua MBA students, Chinese enterprises and Colombian business leaders in the future.

In the discussion, the SEM presented various incubated entrepreneur programs to our eminent guests, highlighting Tsinghua MBAs main specialization streams on innovation and entrepreneurship. Part of the rationale behind this meeting is from the good intentions of both parties to foster a platform for future cooperation between Tsinghua University and Top Colombian Universities. Tsinghua University has hopes that this would go beyond the current exchange program that has been in existence.

Additionally, Tsinghua University hopes to look forward to greater development in China-Chile relationships. Ms Wu Shuqing aspires for Tsinghua and Chile to jointly facilitate future Tsinghua University academic exchanges, as well as cooperate with Chongqing Municipal Government on the 2012 Liangjiang Forum, which is promoted to be the ‘Davos in west China’.