On March 30, the International Exchange Seminar of Silk Road Tea Institute, jointly organized by the School of Agricultural Engineering of GVTC and Uva Wellassa University(UWU) in Sri Lanka, was held as scheduled. This seminar aims to promote the international project of Silk Road Tea Institute, a professional group of tea cultivation and processing in the national "Double High-levels Plan", and actively explore and build a brand for international exchange and cooperation of tea culture in GVTC. Wasantha Senevirathna, the Dean of the Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture of UWU, and Dr.Ranjith Perera, the Director of the Teaching and Research Office of the Department of Export Agriculture attended the seminar. The meeting was attended by more than 20 people from the relevant leaders of the College of International Education of GVTC, the relevant leaders of the School of Agricultural Engineering and the faculty team of the “Double High-levels Plan” in tea,  and the faculty team of the Department of Export Agriculture of UWU.The meeting also specially invited Mr. Stone, the founder of a tea company in Sri Lanka, who is also an outstanding graduate majoring in tea art in 2006, to attend the meeting.
  The main topic of this seminar is the international exchange activities to be carried out by the two universities in 2023 under the framework of the Silk Road Tea Institute Cooperation Agreement, including International Forum Invitation, Online Training, International Tea Day Event, Teachers and Students of UWU visit to GVTC and so on. At the meeting, UWU first sincerely invited teachers of the School of Agricultural Engineering of GVTC to attend the upcoming international forum organized by UWU in Sri Lanka in July this year and make a keynote speech and hoped that GVTC can provide a one-month online training on green tea processing. UWU also expressed the wish of teachers and students of UWU to visit China, have a short-term exchange, and conduct joint research.
  Mr. Stone also introduced the company's development in Ceylon tea export and tea industry tourism at the meeting, hoping to participate in school-enterprise cooperation as a bridge for international exchanges between the two universities, and jointly promote the exchange and cooperation of tea culture between the two countries. The meeting was pragmatic and efficient, and the specific time, arrangement, and implementation plan of various activities were initially drawn up.

  In the afternoon, Muditha K. Meegahakumbura, the Associate Professor of the Department of Export Agriculture of UWU and Doctor of Natural Science, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, was also invited to hold an international academic lecture entitled "Genetic Diversity, Relationships, Domestication and Dissemination of Tea Germplasm in Asia" for teachers and students of Tea Tree cultivation and Tea Leaf processing major of GVTC, as well as tea undergraduates from Wuzhou University and Hezhou University. Dr. Muditha introduced his doctoral program in China in detail from the aspects of research background, specific objectives, materials and methods, results and discussion, which is quite professional. This academic lecture had great significance in promoting the development of academic exchanges in the tea discipline in GVTC, broadening the international vision of teachers and students, and accelerating the cultivation of undergraduate vocational education in GVTC. 

(photo/article: Yang Huiyuan, Editor: Chen Yu Review: Zhang Yan and Deng Hongyan)