From 24 until 27 May 2016, a delegation from Ghent University visited the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in China. The main goal of the visit was to sign a Joint Lab agreement between the two institutions.

The agreement for the “Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory for Geo-information” was signed in the presence of H.E. Michel Malherbe, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to China and two other representatives from the Belgian Embassy; the Director General of XIEG, Prof. Chen Xi and several officials from different governmental departments in Urumqi, such as the Xinjiang Bureau of Foreign Experts, the Xinjiang Foreign Affairs Office and the Xinjiang Department of Science and Technology. At the end of the official signing ceremony a signboard of the Joint Lab was revealed.

Furthermore, a diploma was awarded to the first double PhD degree student, Dr. Fang Gonghuan, who successfully defended her doctoral thesis on May 22 in front of a jury consisting of Belgian and Chinese professors from the relevant domain.

The delegation from Ghent University also accompanied the delegation from the Belgian Embassy headed by Ambassador Michel Malherbe to the meeting with the local leaders of Xinjiang. During this meeting the Ambassador of Belgium discussed several topics, amongst which the long-lasting bilateral cooperation between Belgium and China, the signing of the Joint Lab agreement and some possibilities of future cooperation between Belgium and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

The establishment of this Joint Lab is a direct outcome of the close cooperation between Prof. Philippe De Maeyer, Department of Geography, Faculty of Sciences, UGent and Prof. Alishir Kurban, Associate professor from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in China.

This signing will definitely further strengthen the already existing cooperation between Ghent University and the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China.