Vice president Ding Renzhong welcomed U.S. Consul General in Chengdu He Mengde (Peter Haymond)

On December 15, 2011, Vice president Ding Renzhong welcomed U.S. Consul General in Chengdu He Mengde (Peter Haymond), accompanied by Consular Tang Mingjun (Michael Toyryla), to visit our university. Vice President Ding met with the dignitaries at the Teng Xiang building, along with the Foreign Affairs Department and the School of Business Administration.

After introducing the history of the educational reform in SWUFE, wider university development strategies, approach in running the university and reform on teaching methods, as well as our foreign exchange and cooperation. President Ding further pointed out that SWUFE is the only university in China with a financial background that has benefited from being under the administration of the People's Bank of China for a significant period of time. In the year 2000 University administration changed to be directly under the Ministry of Education, and SWUFE become one of the 100 key universities’ in China.

In recent years, the university has increased the pace of its internationalization. Now, SWUFE has established stable relations with nearly 70 international universities and many international wellknown financial institutions and enterprises in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, including for example Citibank and Oracle. Vice President Ding hoped that consul general He Mengde could give further support and advice to SWUFE in terms of generating more international exchange and cooperation opportunities with the United States.

Consul General He Mengde was very grateful for the hospitality from Vice President Ding and Faculty members from the School of Business Administration. He said that SWUFE has a well-known reputation in the financial sector in China, and he highly praised the great success of SWUFE has made in the process of internationalization in recent years. Consul General He Mengde looked forward to enhancing the communication and further expanding the scale and scope of international cooperation opportunities. He also said he has a responsibility to publicize SWUFE when he returns to the US, so that more American students can further understand Chengdu and be more aware of SWUFE.

Consul General Peter Haymond gave a presentation to our students in the conference room of the TengXiang building titled “The interdependence of the world's next Sino-US relations”.

Mr. He Mengde has served as the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu since September 2011, and previously served as deputy U.S. Embassy in Laos. Ambassador He Mengde has a Ph.D. in economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and has twenty years’ experiences working as a U.S. diplomat. He was worked as U.S. ambassador to China, Laos, Thailand and South Korea, and has also worked in the Washington State Energy Policy Office, Office of the anti-terrorism and multilateral economic development. (The President’s Office)