From June 30thto July 1st, 2018, the 7th Chinese Public Management Scholars Seminar was held at XJTU. Jointly organized by the School of Public Policy and Administration of XJTU, the Center for Public Administration Research of Sun Yat-sen University, the School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University and the Chinese-America Association of Public Affairs (CAAPA), the seminar was attended by more than 230 scholars from nearly 100 universities in China, America, Australia and Canada as well as other countries and regions, and received nearly 300 papers.
XJTU vice president Xi Guang attended the seminar and made an address in the opening ceremony on the morning of June 30th, 2018. He pointed out that humanities and social sciences constitute an important part of XJTU’s endeavor to develop into a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. About 28% of teachers in XJTU are engaged in researches related to humanities and social sciences. An important task for all disciplines including public administration included in the humanities and social sciences is institutional improvement that contributes to national development. He mentioned that the discipline of public administration of XJTU, based on the academic passion focusing on domestic issues and globalized platform for cooperation, is developing to offering knowledge supply and policy recommendations for national governance of China in the new era. He expressed his hope that the forum could promote exchanges among Chinese public management scholars to a higher level with an aim to jointly advancing the development of the discipline and the service of public administration in China.
Professor Liu Guocai, former chairman of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and professor of the University of Central Florida, Prof. Wang Puqu, vice president of the Chinese Association of Political Science, Prof. Lou Chengwu from School of Humanities and Law of Northeastern University, Prof. Yang Kaifeng, dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy of Renmin University of China, Dr. Liu Yang, CAAPA President and other scholars attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Keynote speeches were given by Prof. Zhu Qianwei from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, Prof. Zhu Xufeng from the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, Prof. Tong Xing from the School of Government of Nanjing University, Prof. He Daji from the University of Kansas, Prof. Wu Jiannan from the School of International and Public Affairs of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Prof. Deng Dasong from the School of Political Science and Public Administration of Wuhan University, Prof. Yu Jianxing from the School of Public Affairs of Zhejiang University, Associate Professor Zhao Zhirong from the University of Minnesota, Prof. Li Shuzhuo of the School of Public Policy and Administration of XJTU, and Prof. Zhang Sifeng. Prof. Xia Shuzhang, founder of contemporary public administration in China and father of China’s MPA, sent a congratulatory letter to the forum and dedicated a few lines to the seminar -- “governance requires competence, and earnest academic attitude leads us to dream realization.” Prof. Liu Junqiang, vice dean of the School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University, read the letter.
Prof. Li Shuzhuo is making keynote speech
The seminar involved 21 themes, including Belt & Road Initiative and regional development, PPP and public finance, urbanization and public policy, performance evaluation and management, public participation, environmental governance, regional innovation and policy innovation, health management and policy, social risk and governance, land use and development, targeted poverty alleviation, data and network governance, coordinated governance and sports governance. By focusing on issues in China with international vision, scholars carried out extensive and in-depth discussions about these topics, generating a stream of ideas. Researchers of XJTU also reported the academic progress in their respective fields, receiving appreciation and positive feedback from participating scholars.
At the closing ceremony held on July 1st, 2018, a prize presentation ceremony for the outstanding papers contributed to the conference and the award ceremony of CAAPA was held. Professor Du Haifeng, executive dean of the School of Public Policy and Administration of XJTU, Jia Yihua, director of the Department of Social Sciences of XJTU, and Sun Tao, dean of the Zhou Enlai School of Government of Nankai University (also the next organizer of the seminar) respectively delivered speech. Dong Xinyu, vice dean of the School of Public Policy and Administration of XJTU, declared the closing of this seminar. All the experts presented said that they would, in their future work, absorb the new ideas gained during the seminar, and make greater contributions to addressing the current issues concerning public administration in China through in-depth and detail-oriented academic research.
It is known that the Chinese Public Management Scholars Seminar, proposed by Prof. Xia Shuzhang, was jointly sponsored by Sun Yat-sen University, XJTU and the CAAPA. Among the seven sessions successfully held since 2010, the seminar held in this year ranked the top in terms of the number of attendees and the range of topics. In 2011, the 2ndChinese Public Management Scholars Seminar was held in XJTU. Seven years later, XJTU hosted it again. Currently, an increasing influence of the seminar on academic field is witnessed by all, and its model of academic exchanges is developed. With the support of XJTU, CAAPA, Sun Yat-sen University and other peer universities, the Chinese Public Management Scholars Seminar has become a brand academic activity in the field of public administration.
