From July 3 to July 9, LIN Song, vice principal of GVTC led a team to go to Indonesia and Malaysia to conduct international exchange, with CHEN Enhai, Dean of the School of Agriculture Engineering, and YANG Huiyuan, teacher of the Double High-levels Plan Tea Cultivation and Tea Processing major travelling with the team. During this period, Dean CHEN Enhai and Teacher YANG Huiyuan arrived in Indonesia Research Institute for Tea and Cinchona(RITC) to visit and exchange for one day.

This visit was warmly welcomed by leaders and researchers of the RITC, which was the first offline exchange between GVTC and RITC after the Silk Road Tea Institute had been established jointly by both parties. During the meetings and exchange between both parties, Dean CHEN Enhai first reviewed the online exchange activities between GVTC and RITC in the initial stage and introduced the main purpose of this visit on behalf of GVTC, which was to better promote the specialty of GVTC through this offline exchange and make more ASEAN students to choose to “study in GVTC”. The second purpose was to discuss together the assumption and method of development and cooperation in the tea industry between both parties and establish a long-term, consistent cooperative partnership. Dean CHEN Enhai also sincerely invited leaders of RITC to attend the China - ASEAN Conference on Vocational Education Cooperation and Development, which will be held in Nanning, Guangxi from September 15th to September 17th this year, and the 2023 China - ASEAN Tea Industry Vocational Education Cooperation Forum to jointly discuss the future development of the Silk Road Tea Institute.

Mr. Akmal Agustira, Head of the Indonesia Research Institute for Tea and Cinchona, introduced in detail the development history and present situation of center at the meeting. RITC mainly engages in tea-related business, including research and services in such areas as the cultivation and development of tea plant varieties, tea quality and safety testing, vocational skill training in the tea industry, and policy formulation and planning related to tea cultivation, and has conducted cooperative scientific research and student practical training projects with multiple renowned colleges in Indonesia. The institute itself owns facilities including a black tea and green tea production factory, a white tea packaging workshop, a research laboratory, and a cultivating greenhouse, has researched and developed a tea plant variety, “GMB”, and has its own products like green tea, white tea, and matcha powder. Mr. Akmal hoped that both parties could regularly conduct projects including vocational tea training, non-academic short-term courses, researcher/lecturer exchange, and scholarship program on tea for academic degree. He also suggested carrying out in-depth cooperative research with GVTC in areas including smart tea plantation, tea factory automation, tea processing energy efficiency, pest and disease technology, breeding and tissue culture technology, cultivation low input technology, development of specialty tea processing on small-scale, and diversification of tea end product development in the future.

After the meeting, Mr. Erdiansyah Rezamela, director of the Research Department led CHEN Enhai and others to visit the mountainous tea gardens, tea processing  plant, and tea products of the institute and gave a detailed introduction. During the visit, personnel of the research institute expressed a high level of appreciation to GVTC’s professional knowledge and skills in tea processing technology, hoping GVTC could provide them with guidance on tea processing technology, assist with enhancing the quality of tea, increase categories of tea, increase the added value of tea, and increase the export of tea. Dean CHEN Enhai expressed his willingness to closely meet the needs of the RITC, actively explore the in-depth cooperation between both parties in the tea industry, and fully support Indonesia’s development of tea processing technology to positively contribute to the promotion of tea culture exchanges and strengthening of common friendly exchanges.

This visit and exchange not only expanded GVTC’s international cooperation network but also provided new ideas and opportunities for the inheritance and development of GVTC’s tea culture, further bringing the distance between GVTC and RITC closer, increasing the depth and width of cooperation between both parties, laying a solid foundation for future cooperation, and achieving the expected goal. We look forward to carrying out more exchanges and cooperation between both parties in the future and making a greater contribution to the friendship and win-win cooperation between the two countries.

(Image/text: YANG Huiyuan; Editor: ZHU Yan; Proofread by: LI Tong; Reviewed by: OU Ruihong)