The opening ceremony of the Kazakhstan branch campus of Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) was held on Oct 12 in Almaty, at the library hall of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

The opening ceremony is held on Thursday at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

It marks the first high-level university from China to officially start education in the place where the Belt and Road Initiative was initiated.

Jiang Wei, consul general of China in Almaty, Li Yanrong, secretary of the Party Committee of Northwestern Polytechnical University and academician of the CAE, Malik Otarbayev, advisor to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Talgat Yeshenkulov, vice minister of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, and representatives of relevant parties attended the event.

Li Yanrong deliveres a speech at the opening ceremony.

Li Yanrong, on behalf of Northwestern Polytechnical University, expressed his sincere gratitude to the Chinese Consulate General in Almaty, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, and Chinese enterprises for their concern and support in the development of the campus, noting that Kazakhstan is the first place to initiate the Belt and Road initiative, and the opening of the branch school is a concrete action and beneficial practice to implement the outcomes of the summit between the two heads of state.

Li proposed three ideas for the development of branch schools in his speech: firstly, to promote the deep integration of education models between the two countries by focusing on talent cultivation; secondly, to promote high-level education through master's training as a starting point; and thirdly, to use talent cultivation as a bridge to promote collaborative innovation in scientific research cooperation.

Jiang Wei said that in response to the important proposals made by the two heads of state at the China-Asia Summit, with the strong support of the competent authorities of the two countries and the careful deployment of the leaders of the two universities, it took just five months to transform the campus from a blueprint into reality, and presented a special "gift" to the upcoming third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum, which effectively helped the high-quality development of China Kazakhstan practical cooperation.

Malik Otarbayev delivered a speech stating that the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University holds an important position among Kazakh universities, and Northwestern Polytechnical University is a high-level research university with strong engineering strength in China.

“The cooperation between the two sides has received strong support, and we hope that the construction of the Kazakhstan branch campus of Northwestern Polytechnical University can further promote cooperation in various fields and push the friendship between Kazakhstan and China to a new level,” said Otarbayev.

Group photo of the first batch of Kazakh students receiving admission notices with representatives from the opening ceremony meeting.