On the morning of October 11, there was a meeting between Vice Principal Devon Smith from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (hereafter UWI Mona) where Confucius Institute is located, and Vice President Yongkang Lv of Taiyuan University of Technology (hereafter, TUT) which is the Chinese partner university of Confucius Institute in UWI Mona. Vice Principal Smith made this special trip to TUT observing the construction project of the new campus of TUT.

Dr. Gang Xie, Director of the College of International Education Exchange of TUT and Professor Shaogang Lu, Co-Director of Confucius Institute were also present at the meeting. At the meeting, Dr. Devon Smith gave favorable comments on the Confucius Institute in showering UWI staff members and students as well as members of community with Chinese language and culture. Besides, Confucius Institute has been providing support to companies in Jamaica that are interested in doing business with China and motivated some others in starting to do the international trading. Under the influence of Confucius Institute, the relationship with TUT has grown in strength and UWI Mona has build relationships with other important Chinese universities. Hence Confucius Institute has made golden opportunities for UWI Mona in the construction and development. Both Dr. Devon Smith and Dr. Yongkang Lv have shared ideas that the influence of Confucius Institute by Hanban China has gone well beyond the lingual & cultural, academic & spiritual categories, and that the role of Confucius Institute is recognized as a bridge and express train between two universities and two countries.

Vice Principal Smith, in the company of heads concerned from TUT, went to the new campus of TUT, where Dr. Smith’s main concerns were focused on the structure of management team, purchasing channels of the construction materials, the influence of planning & programming on the progress of the project and the sustainable development of the new campus construction etc.

Vice Principal Devon Smith was deeply impressed by the visit to the construction site, and spoke highly of the high levels of the scale, speed, quality and management in the construction program, and said he had learned very useful philosophy and experience, which he believed would definitely serve as a model role in the project of special training ground to be launched on Mona Campus for the famous sprinter Usain Bolt.