On April 20, 2024, the inaugural “the Belt and Road Policy Communication Workshop on Digital Governance in China and Arab” was held online, co-hosted by the Arab University Association, the Fudan-Arab Research Centre for Global Development and Governance, and China-Arab Network of Schools of Public Policy and Administration (CANSPPA), with the co-sponsorship of the China Association of Higher Education (CAHE). Vice President Daliang Zhang of the CAHE attended the conference and delivered a speech, and Director Xiaojie Gao of the Academic and Exchange Department of the Secretariat of the the CAHE also participated. Professor Walid Salameh, Senior Advisor of the Arab University Association, and Professor Yijia Jing, Dean of the Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy, presided over the conference. More than 40 experts and scholars from China and Arab countries participated in the conference.

Vice President Daliang Zhang pointed out that China and the Arab countries, as important partners in jointly building the Belt and Road, have formed a basic consensus of mutual learning and win-win cooperation over a long period of time. Subsequently, Professor Salameh and Professor Jing respectively chaired two discussion panels, where scholars and professionals from over ten institutions in China and the Arab countries exchanged views on digital governance between China and the Arab countries. Participants delved into various topics such as policy-making, cooperation in the digital economy, and how to promote collaboration in Sino-Arab digital governance.

Speakers of the conference include scholars and experts as follows:

Panel 1： 

Prof. Ashraf Hassan Abdelwahab, Prof. of AI and Ex. Minister of Administrative Development, Egypt

Prof. Xiang Gao, MPA Director, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China

Prof. Hasan Al Momani, Dean of Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Jordan, Jordan

Asst. Prof. Ziteng Fan, Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University, China

Assoc. Prof. Moosa Elayah, School of Economics, Administration and Public Policy, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar

Panel 2: 

Prof. Yi Liu, Vice Dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy, Dalian University of Technology, China

Rana Hetta, Assistant to the Minister for Monitoring, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology & MPP Alumna and Yousef Jameel Fellow at the American University in Cairo, Egypt

Prof. Lihua Yang, School of Government, Peking University, China

Assoc. Prof. Shujun Jiang, Department of Media and Creative Industries, United Arab Emirates University, UAE

Assoc. Prof. Ning Liu, Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China