Introduction
The Confucius Institute for Business London Advisory Council Meeting was held in the Old Building of LSE on 11th July 2011.This was the first formal meeting since the establishment of the Advisory Council in 2010. In addition to the seven members of the CIBL Advisory Council, there were nine representatives from LSE and Tsinghua University present at the meeting. The meeting was presided over by the Chairman of Advisory Council, the Vice President of Tsinghua University, Prof. Weihe Xie.
In attendance
Representatives from the Advisory Council:
• Vice President of Tsinghua University and Chairman of the Advisory Council, Prof. Weihe Xie
• Deputy Director of LSE, Prof. Janet Hartley
• Group Political Advisor of British Petroleum Plc, Mr. John Baldwin
• Group Head of Regulatory Policy and Development and Head of China affairs at HSBC, Mr. Charles Haswell
• Vice Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, Sir. Thomas Harris
• Chairman of Chinese Service Group of Deloitte LLP, Mr. Colin Hudson
Representatives from the Embassy of the Peoples' Republic of China:
• Minister Counsellor for Education, Mr. Xiaogang Tian
• Third Secretary, Ms. Li Zhu.
Representatives from Tsinghua University:
• Deputy Director of International Cooperation and Exchanges of Tsinghua University, Mr. Guangzhi Xia
• China Director of CIBL, Professor Guoying Huang
• Vice Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science of Tsinghua University, Prof. Shisheng Liu
• Representative of Tsinghua Steering Committee, Professor Li Cao
Representatives from LSE:
UK Director of CIBL, Mr. Nicholas Byrne
• UK Coordinator of CIBL, Dr. Hong Lu
• Representative of LSE Steering Committee, Professor Danny Quah
Presentation of activities
The UK and China directors of CIBL presented an oral report to the Council containing the highlights of activities and presenting the main remit and brief of the institute.
Dr. Hong Lu introduced a rough-cut of a short promotional film about the teaching and activities of CIBL.
Members from China and Britain gave very positive feedback and also gave constructive comments and suggestions of how to deal with the difficulties and challenges facing CIBL.
Comments from the Advisory Council
Looking at the issues of both sustainability and profitability in the long term, members of the Advisory Council hoped that CIBL would make better use of the high quality academic and teaching resources of Tsinghua University and LSE.
There should be even more integration of the current economic and financial issues relating to the development of China and its relationship to the world in the curriculum of the Institute. There should also be an expansion of Business Chinese training to small and medium enterprises.
CIBL needed to continue exploring new teaching and training models to improve the quality of teaching and management. It should also think about improving its operational systems and further clarify and highlight its priorities. It should expand and enhance training in cross-cultural international communication and strive to make CIBL unique and outstanding by further increasing its brand value. At the same time, CIBL should play a key role as a bridge between Tsinghua University and LSE in promoting the value of high-level applied research activities. The two universities should carry out a higher level of research cooperation.
Election of available posts on Advisory Council
With the consensus of members of the Advisory Council and other representatives in the meeting, Mr. Charles Haswell, Group Head of Regulatory Policy and Development, Head of China affairs of HSBC, was elected to be the Vice Chairman of CIBL Advisory Council.
Prof. Li Cao, Representative of Tsinghua Steering Committee, was elected as the General Secretary.
Dr. Hong Lu, UK Coordinator of CIBL, was elected to be the Deputy General Secretary.
Concluding remarks
Mr. Xiaogang Tian, Minister Counsellor for Education from the Embassy, Vice President of Tsinghua Professor Weihe Xie and Deputy Director of LSE, Professor Janet Hartley gave separate concluding remarks.
All encouraged CIBL to continue to make the greatest of efforts to promote Chinese Culture in the UK, and harness the potential of developing both Chinese language and integrated business skills amongst the broad range of client groups.
It was noted that with the continuous emergence of economic globalization, the Confucius Institute for Business London, with its goal of teaching Chinese business language and culture, has the potential to be better known in London, the financial centre of the world, as an increasing number of senior business professionals are involved in CIBL's training courses in Chinese business language and culture.
In the meantime, the annual CIBL Advisory Council Meeting intends to play a positive role in giving advice and promoting the further progress of CIBL. The Confucius Institute for Business London will continue to promote Chinese language and culture, and perform an active promotional role maximizing the potential of its location in the world's greatest financial centre.