The award ceremony of 2019 Chinese Government Friendship Award was held in the Great Hall of the People on September 30. Liu He, the member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council presented the awards to foreign experts and made a speech. South African Prof. Craig with Central South University (CSU) has the honor to win the Chinese Government Friendship Award and becomes the third foreign expert who wins the award in our university for recent four years.
Dr. Ian Keith Craig, the expert of CSU and academician from South African Academy of Engineering, attended the award-giving meeting. He is now serving as the chairman of International Federation of Automatic Control, academician of South African Academy of Engineering, leader of control system team of South African University of Pretoria and chief academic master of “111 Talents Introduction Plan” of intelligent control and optimization decision of manufacturing process, CSU. As an active responder to the call of “the Belt and Road” construction, he has devoted himself to the academic exchange and cooperation between China and South Africa for many years; he has established close academic cooperative relationship with CSU, Northeastern University and Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc. and made outstanding contribution to the promotion of scientific research cooperation and talent cultivation in the field of Chinese automation in process industry.
Since the establishment of new China, especially the reform and opening-up, a lot of foreign experts have thrown themselves into modern construction in China, assisted China in cultivating talents, strived to boost exchange and cooperation between China and foreign counties, put great effort and made important contribution to the development in China. In 1991, the State Council authorized State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs to set up Chinese Government Friendship Award, which is the top government honorary award to commend the foreign experts who make outstanding contributions to Chinse modern construction. This award has commended 1,599 foreign experts in the fields of science, technology, economy, education, culture and hygiene, etc. for 28 years consecutively. There are 100 foreign experts win this award due to their contributions this year.
Li Keqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Primer Minister, and Han Zheng, a vice primer, met with the experts who have won 2019 Chinese Government Friendship Award and their relatives after the award ceremony.
Source: Office of International Cooperation and Exchange
