A delegation from the Malaysian Timber Industry Board Visited NJFU

On the morning of July 7th, Mr. Saiful Bahri bin Salle, the Director of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB), and Dato' Dr. Tan Yew Chong, the advisor to the Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities of Malaysia, led a delegation to visit NJFU. President Yong Qiang and Vice President Yin Tongming attended the meeting.  

In his speech, President Yong introduced the educational characteristics and disciplinary advantages of NJFU and reviewed the long-term and fruitful cooperation between the two sides. He pointed out that Malaysia, with its rich and unique tropical rainforest resources, has always been an important partner for Nanjing Forestry University in promoting its internationalization strategy. In recent years, the cooperation between the two sides in areas such as joint education and talent cultivation has been continuously deepened, achieving a series of substantive results and laying a solid foundation for future development. President Yong emphasized that the visit of the MTIB delegation marks a new stage in the cooperation between the two sides. He said that looking to the future, both sides should leverage their respective resource endowment advantages and focus on deepening cooperation in key areas such as global sustainable forest management, green transformation of the wood industry, and efficient utilization of biomass resources. By establishing a closer international mechanism for collaborative innovation among industry and research, the two sides will jointly promote China-Malaysia forestry cooperation to a higher level and make new contributions to the sustainable development of global forestry and ecological civilization.

Mr. Saiful Bahri bin Salleh elaborated on the current development status of Malaysia's timber industry, policy orientation, as well as the core mission and functions of MTIB. He pointed out that Malaysia, as a globally significant producer and exporter of wood and wood products, is actively promoting the transformation and upgrading of its industries towards higher added value, greater environmental friendliness, more innovation and sustainability. As a government agency, MTIB shoulders the important responsibility of promoting industrial development, setting standards, driving research and development, and expanding the market. He particularly emphasized the importance of cooperating with the world's top universities and research institutions, especially partners like NJFU that are strong in the fields of forestry engineering and biomass materials science. He stated that the cooperation with NJFU will introduce cutting-edge technologies, innovative concepts and cultivate high-end talents for Malaysia's wood industry, effectively addressing the challenges faced by the industry such as efficient resource utilization, environmental protection process upgrading and product innovation, further enhancing the overall competitiveness and sustainable development capacity of the industry, and ultimately achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.

In his speech, Dato' Dr. Tan Yew Chong highly praised the remarkable achievements NJFU has made in the field of forestry education and scientific research, especially the breakthrough progress in discipline construction, including the establishment of multiple national-level scientific research platforms, which has significantly enhanced the international influence and provided a solid foundation and broad prospects for the two sides to deepen cooperation. He emphasized that the core objective of this visit is to further expand and deepen the partnership on the basis of the existing cooperation, especially to enhance mutual visits and academic exchanges between experts and scholars of both sides, in areas such as environmentally friendly forestry management, high-yield and high-quality artificial forest cultivation technology, green processing and high-value utilization of wood, and carrying out substantive joint research on the application of artificial intelligence technology in fields such as forestry monitoring and intelligent processing.

At the meeting, President Yong and Mr. Saiful Bahri bin Salleh signed a memorandum of cooperation on behalf of both sides. Experts from both sides conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions on key issues regarding the development of forestry and wood industries in the two countries and reached a consensus. In the future, both sides will deepen practical cooperation in key areas such as technological innovation in green wood and bamboo, joint construction of industry-university-research platforms, and international talent cultivation.