On November 19, President Song Xuefeng attended the International online forum -“Advanced engineering competencies - the future of the raw materials industry” held in St. Petersburg, Russia and delivered a speech as the sole representative of Chinese universities.

The forum consisted of 2 panel discussions, with topics of “Human resources potential as the basis for efficient company operations and sustainable development of the mineral-resources sector” and “National and international competence systems– opportunities for integration”. President Song delivered a speech in the second panel discussion. He introduced the Chinese program of Cultivating Engineers of Excellence and its implementation at CUMT as well as CUMT’s efforts in building new engineering programs, and shared his opinions on talent competencies required by the future development of mining industry. President Song also expressed CUMT’s readiness to be involved in the international cooperation and the formulation of a global standard for cultivating mining engineers. Ms. Anastasiya Bondarenko, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation moderated the panel discussion.

On the forum, all the participants recognize the importance of developing a unified international system of competencies and assessment specialists in mining resource engineering. The Saint Petersburg Mining University will lead to organize an international working group on developing the system. CUMT is selected as the member of the group.

The forum was organized by the UNESCO International Competence Center for Mining-Engineering Education and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) in the UK, with a theme of establishing global unified competence system for mining engineers including the standard of professional qualification and its evaluation. Vladimir Litvinenko, Chair of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Center and Rector of St.Petersburg Mining University, Colin Church, Chief Executive of IOM3, Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO, Wilfred Eichlseder, Rector of Montanuniversität Leoben of Austria, Jerzy Lis, Rector of AGH University of Science and Technology of Poland, Mark Chesher, Technical Director of Russian Branch of Australian Mining Consultants Pty Ltd. attended the forum and deeply discussed and exchanged ideas on the topic.