The First BTBU Model SCO

On October 29, the first Model SCO Youth Conference at Beijing Technology and Business University was successfully held in both online and offline modes, with the theme of “How to Promote Regional Digital Economic Governance in the SCO countries.” The conference was hosted by Beijing Technology and Business University and SCOLAR Network and co-organized by the BTBU-ECO Joint Training Center and BTBU School of International Economics and Management. China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) Program’s International Collaboration Platform for Science & Technology Organizations in Belt and Road Countries and Beijing International Science and Technology Exchange Center (BISTEC) supported the Conference. Twenty students from BTBU participated in the discussion, representing nine member states and the SCO Secretariat, a total of 10 delegations.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Liu Minhua, Vice President of Beijing Technology and Business University, and Ms. Victoria Khu, co-founder and CEO of SCOLAR Network, delivered speeches. 

Mr. Liu Minhua mentioned that international development is the long-term philosophy of BTBU. University attaches great attention to cooperation with the SCO member states and actively encourages students to participate in the international communication and cooperation. He highlighted that young people are the builders of the future and friendship. According to his words, Model SCO provides a practical platform for students to develop an international perspective, to understand the issues of great concern to the international community, and to start a multilateral dialogue. 

Ms. Victoria Khu, co-founder and CEO of SCOLAR Network, expressed her great pleasure to jointly launch the Model SCO at Beijing Technology and Business University. She thanked the organizers for their work and the international mentors for their guidance and training. She stressed that all the delegates have put great efforts into this event, going through several stages of selection, training and writing documents to make it to the day of the youth conference. Everyone at this table is a diplomat, and everyone represents a country. As long as every country adheres to the “Shanghai Spirit”, it will certainly be able to seek more consensus.

In the formal session, under the chairmanship of India, 10 delegations took turns to speak according to the seating arrangement. Representatives expressed their views and put forward many constructive suggestions on promoting regional digital economic governance in the SCO countries.

Finally, the consensus was reached, and a declaration was formed on the establishment of a digital economy governance committee, the establishment of a data cooperation platform, the development of digital industries, the improvement of digital government affairs, and the strengthening of digital trade cooperation. Delegates voted, put forward amendments, rewrote some points, and then read the declaration.

Al-Samawi Amjad, the representative of Kazakhstan, won the “Best Delegate” award, Lu Yuxin and Yuan Jiesyu, the representatives of Russia, won the “Best Position Paper” award, and Wang Mingyu, the representative of India, won the “Best Performance” award. On behalf of the organizing committee, Di Yuna, Director of BTBU-ECO Joint Training Center and Han Lu, Deputy Director of the Department of International Business Management, School of International Economics and Management of BTBU, presented the awards to the winners.

BTBU Declaration of the “Model SCO”‘s Head of State Council

Delegates Feedback

I am Amjad from Yemen, a master student at BTBU. It was a great opportunity to take part in the First BTBU MSCO and represent Republic of Kazakhstan. It was not easy to represent other country in such diplomatic event. We might have less knowledge about it but with the guidance of our teachers from BTBU and mentors from SCOLAR we learned step by step till we mastered it.

Firstly, I personally had no idea what is SCO but after we got the first training by SCOLAR I got to know Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We learned about it by heart, learned about its establishment, member countries, vision, mission and so on.

Secondly, the title of“How to promote regional digital economy governance in SCO countries”is also important. It’s the first Model SCO with nine countries and, as I am working in digital economy project for my master degree, it was a great opportunity to gain more knowledge about nine member countries’ digital economy, their current situations, statistics, development, and future initiatives.

Thirdly, one of my dreams is to become a diplomat in the future, so BTBU MSCO is my first step towards diplomacy. We as Kazakh delegates prepared our position paper based on the guidance we got from our mentor how to write it, find the data, write in the language of the real diplomats, and propose our initiatives based on the current situation of digital economy in the SCO region. We got lots of recommendations and skills from our mentor how to prepare for the discussion part by giving suggestions and asking questions for better performance during the event.

Finally, BTBU MSCO was an unforgettable opportunity that developed my soft skills and gave me the determination, passion, and hope to transfer this great idea to Yemen.

I want to say thank you to SCOLAR and BTBU, for organizing such activity as Model SCO, and giving us an opportunity to be a part of this. It is a great pleasure to meet my fellow colleagues. Hopefully, we can solve the issues that affect our country. Because we are the future generation, we must lead the foundation for our generation. So we have to make it right, for the sake of our legacy to continue. Thank you!

I want to say thank you to all the representatives. As the chair country, we’ve learnt a lot about management of the meeting through the training. Our delegations also got more further development. We did our best to express our positions and overcame language barriers. Thank you, foreign friends and online members, for providing lots of ideas. Thank you, Viktoria, Shikha, and all the members of SCOLAR network!

It was a very great meeting, in which we shared different opinions. I really appreciate SCOLAR’s effort, SCOLAR did a very good job. I want to thank BTBU, and I wish this kind of conference will be arranged in the future, so we can participate and share our views. Thank you very much!

We’ve done so much, and we really learnt a lot. Thank you, all the mentors and delegates! 

As the representative of the rotating presidency of the Model Shanghai Cooperation Organization, I learned a lot: from the initial training, the writing and modification of the draft, meeting to the subsequent process of learning and a joint statement, my partners and I overcome the gap of different languages, from hard to smooth, from unfamiliar to the familiar, from unfamiliar to skilled, and finally represent our perspective and position at the last meeting. At the same time, the cooperation process between the chair country and the Secretariat made us realize the importance of collaboration, which added a strong mark to our experience.

In the process of training, the teachers gave us the greatest help! Thanks to the teachers for their guidance, thanks to my classmates for being positive, cooperative, thanks to Beijing Technology and Business University and SCOLAR Network for providing us such a platform to exchange. We were impressed by this experience and created unforgettable memories.

I am very happy to participate in this simulation of the SCO, I strengthened my English speaking and writing skills. Looking forward to the second Beijing Business University simulation of the SCO!

I am very honored to participate in this event and speak as the delegation of India. In MSCO, I have made so many friends from different countries and got to practice in English communication. At the same time, in the process of helping the Secretariat to write the joint statement, I’ve also learnt more about the SCO countries, and not only about the advantageous industries but also the cultural background of each country, which is very helpful for my further studies. In addition, I would like to thank the mentors for their patient guidance and help in writing position papers and the conference process. MSCO is a very meaningful activity, thank you for providing this platform for us!

Meet the Delegates

Meet the Mentors