The third Shandong Forum – hosted by Shandong University and the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies – was held in the city of Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province, on Oct 9-10.

The theme of this year's forum was "A shared future: East Asia facing profound changes unseen in a century."

Park In-kook, dean of the Chey Institute – based in South Korea – participated in the forum and gave a speech via a video conference call. Wang Luming, head of the Standing Committee of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Fan Liming, president of Shandong University, attended and gave speeches at the opening ceremony.

Park In-kook gives a speech via a video conference call at the opening ceremony of the Shandong Forum 2021. [Photo provided to sdu.edu.cn]

Chey Institute Dean Park In-kook congratulated Shandong University on its 120th anniversary during his speech at the opening ceremony. He talked about the research orientation of his institute since its establishment in 2018.

He said the Shandong Forum had become a representative knowledge platform for exploring common development and cooperation in East Asia.

Both the Chey Institute and the forum had great enthusiasm for helping out the development of Asia, he continued adding that he looked forward to the experts and scholars at the forum sharing their wisdom and providing creative solutions for the development of East Asia.

SDU's Fan Liming gives a speech at the opening ceremony of the Shandong Forum 2021 on Oct 9. [Photo provided to sdu.edu.cn]

SDU President Fan raised three goals at the opening ceremony that she said would help ensure that the forum was a success.

She said that the first goal was to boost cohesion, to help East Asian countries create momentum in a crisis. The second goal was to explore ways to achieve mutual development, while the third goal was to expand cooperation space.

Wang Luming talks at the Shandong Forum 2021 on Oct 9. [Photo provided to sdu.edu.cn]

Meanwhile, Wang said the city of Qingdao was accelerating its innovation-led economic transformation and the transformation of driving forces for its high-quality development. He urged the forum to help bring forth new opportunities for Qingdao's development.

The Qingdao campus of Shandong University has reportedly proved to be an innovation and talent hub of the city.

Wang added the municipal government would provide stronger support for the university's teaching and research, recruitment and its training – as well as the integrated development of industry, education and research, foreign exchanges and service guarantees.

A university presidents' forum is held on Oct 9. [Photo provided to sdu.edu.cn]

During the Shandong Forum 2021, a university presidents' forum was held on Oct 9 to discuss exchanges and cooperation among universities in East Asia. Nine universities from South Korea, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions attended.

Sub-forums and round-table forums were also held on Oct 9-10 to promote high-quality, high-level and high-standard academic and cultural exchanges in East Asia.

The Shandong Forum, first launched in 2015, is a leading international event jointly hosted by the SDU and the Chey Institute – under the guidance and with the support of the Shandong provincial government – and it has been held on two occasions to date.

The first and second sessions were held in the Shandong cities of Jinan and Weihai in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

This year's forum was also regarded as an important part of the 120th anniversary of the Shandong University.