USI welcomes the delegates of the Sino-Swiss Management Training Program

A delegation of top-level Chinese government officials were welcomed today on the Lugano campus as part of the Sino-Swiss Management Training Program for Sustainable Development (SSMTP4SD).

The initiative, launched in 1993, sees the Chinese Training Centre for Senior Personnel Management (CTCSPMO) from one side, and of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA) on the other. The current phase of the bilateral cooperation programme (2014-2018) is managed by HEC (University of Lausanne), and will continue to foster the modernization of human resources management and the development of civil servants in China. In particular, the program will focus its activities on environmental and social issues for the coming four years in line with China's need and willingness to achieve sustainable economic development.

The programme involves, on specific topics, Swiss academic universities - HEC, in fact, collaborates during this phase with two other faculties at Unil, Geosciences and IDHEAP. The visit at USI was organized within this context: after the welcome speech given by Prof. Andrea Rocci, the newly-appointed Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Prof. Jean-Patrick Villenevue (Deputy dean of the Faculty and Deputy director of the Institute of Public Communication) gave a short lecture on the subject of transparency in the public sector entitled Transparency in Switzerland: an oxymoron? The delegation then left the USI Lugano campus to reach the City Hall of Lugano, where Mayor Marco Borradori received them.