On April 6 and April 7, BUCEA held a technical exchange on China’s road construction with the Russian Highways State Company (AVTODOR). The event took the Belt and Road Architectural University International Consortium (BRAUIC) as a platform and was jointly supported by the Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport of China, and China Construction Accounting Institute. The meeting, an on-site occasion supplemented by online links, was aimed to strengthen exchanges in and cooperation on road construction techniques and seek practical, win-win communication and cooperation between Russia and China.

Opened on the afternoon of April 6, the technical exchange on China’s road construction was attended by LI Aiqun, Vice President of BUCEA, Igor Koval, Senior Vice-Chairman of AVTODOR, and over 80 representatives. JIANG Jie, Executive Dean of BUCEA’s International Development Research Institute (School of International Education) presided over the meeting.

LI Aiqun, on behalf of BUCEA, first extended his heartfelt welcome to the experts and other attendees of the meeting. He made a brief introduction to the university’s 115 years history and characteristics, and expressed that BUCEA stood ready to cooperate with enterprises for high-quality development of transportation in China and Russia. He hoped to take this meeting as an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of AVTODOR and other companies, explore a new model for China and Russia to jointly cultivate professionals in the field of highway and bridge, and deepen scientific research cooperation towards breakthroughs in technical fields of mutual interest.

Igor Koval, Senior Vice-Chairman of AVTODOR, made a speech. He said that AVTODOR was founded by the Federal Government of Russia in 2009. Since then, the company had made significant contributions to Russia’s transport industry by undertaking major transportation projects, including M-11 Neva Highway, the Central Ring Road (CKAD), the M-4 Don Federal Highway, etc. The company had accumulated leading experience in road design, construction, operation, digitalized traffic management, etc. He said that as a road construction power in the world, China had advanced construction technologies. Today’s activity marked the start of the cooperation between AVTODOR and BUCEA, and he hoped that the two sides would deepen communication and cooperation and that all attendees would benefit from the meeting.

On April 6, REN Hongwei, Chief Engineer and Professor-Level Senior Engineer of Bridge and Tunnel Research Center, Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport, made a report themed on  Maintenance, Management ,  and Safety Operation of China’s Highways and Bridges . LI Mingliang, Director and Associate Researcher of Functional Pavement Technology R&D Department of Road Research Center, reported on the theme of  Current Maintenance, Management and Research Progress Regarding China’s Highways and Roads . On April 7, QIN Ying, a professor from School of Urban Economics and Management, MA Yanming, Vice Chairman of China Construction Accounting Institute, DU Yi, QIN Longfei, and JI Jie, Dean of School of Civil and Transportation Engineering shared technical experience and research results on the topics of  Theory and Practice of Investment and Financing of Construction Projects  and  Application and Research Progress of Solid Wastes in Road Engineering in China .

In the two-day event, frontline experts from renowned research institutes of China and Russia and senior practitioners in road construction fields shared the two countries’ knowledge, techniques and experience. Looking forward, with technical exchanges and cooperation as links, BUCEA and AVTODOR will maintain close connection, consolidate cooperation foundation, widen the cooperation scope, so as to seek more fruitful results.

Russian Highways State Company, the exclusive contractor for the construction of the Western China-Western Europe transport corridor, has signed Memorandum of Cooperation with China Communications Construction Company Limited and China Railway Construction Cooperation (International) Limited. The Wester China-Western Europe international transit corridor is a large-scale, comprehensive investment project that stretches through Russia, Kazakhstan and China. It will greatly shorten the overland transport time from China to Middle Asia and Europe, facilitating economic growth of countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt. The project has been listed on the Russian Federation’s comprehensive expansion plan for the infrastructure of the transport arteries.