On the morning of 25 May, Lyu Peiming, Executive Vice President of Tongji University, met with Ms. Elçin Bahçeci, UNESCO external evaluator and Deputy Director of Learning Avenue Consulting, France. Representatives from the Foreign Affairs Office, the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd., and the Secretariat and Shanghai Sub-centre of the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITR-AP) attended the meeting.

Lyu Peiming warmly welcomed Ms. Bahçeci and expressed appreciation to her and the evaluation team for their continued attention to and support for the work of Tongji University and WHITR-AP. He also introduced the history and academic strengths of Tongji University. During the meeting, the two sides held in-depth exchanges on topics including World Heritage conservation, sustainable development, and the development and evaluation of WHITR-AP.

Lyu Peiming noted that Tongji University has a longstanding history of cooperation with United Nations agencies. As the host institution of the WHITR-AP Shanghai Sub-centre and Secretariat, the University provides comprehensive support for the Centre in terms of institutional mechanisms, human resources, funding and facilities. He expressed the hope that the current evaluation would serve as an opportunity to further strengthen the Centre’s governance structure and operational capacity, and to fully leverage the role of the UNESCO Category 2 Centre platform.

Ms. Bahçeci highly commended Tongji University’s strong support for the development of the Centre, as well as the achievements of the Shanghai Sub-centre in training, research and publications. She also offered constructive suggestions regarding the Centre’s future development, including knowledge transfer and community engagement, diversification of financing mechanisms, expansion of the Asia-Pacific network, and support for Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

WHITR-AP is a UNESCO Category 2 Centre established in China in 2008. It is the first Category 2 center in the field of heritage conservation established in a developing country, dedicated to the conservation and sustainable development of World Heritage in the Asia-Pacific region. Guided by its Governing Board, the Centre operates through three sub-centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, together with its Secretariat. Tongji University hosts both the Secretariat and the Shanghai Sub-centre.

Contributed by Pei Jieting

Web typeset by Zhang Yidan (Intern)

Edited by Liu Zhen

Reviewed by Shao Yong