Prof. Weise Receives Hefei Friendship Award

: Written by: Thomas Weise; Created: 16 December 2020

On December 16, 2020, the Hefei City Government [合肥市人民政府] organized the Award Ceremony for the Third Batch of the Hefei Friendship Award for Foreign Experts together with the Forum on Suggestions of Foreign Experts to improve our city [第三届外国专家“合肥友谊奖”颁奖仪式暨外国专家建言献策座谈会]. The symposium was chaired by Mr. Aihua YU [虞爱华（安徽省委常委、合肥市委书记）], member of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Committee and Secretary of Hefei Municipal Party committee, and Mrs. Yun LING [凌云（安徽省合肥市委副书记、市政府市长）], the deputy secretary of Hefei Municipal Party committee and the Mayor of Hefei Municipal Government. The meeting was further guided by Mr. Wensong WANG [王文松（安徽省合肥市委常委、常务副市长）], member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hefei Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Hefei City; Mr. Ping LUO [罗平（安徽省合肥市人民政府党组成员、秘书长）], member of the Party Group and Secretary General of the Hefei Municipal People's Government; and Weiming WANG [市政府副秘书长汪维明], the Deputy Secretary General of the Hefei Municipal Government.

In this third batch of Hefei Friendship Awards, ten international experts from seven countries, namely Germany, Russia, Japan, the United States, Australia, and Costa Rica, and South Korea, were awarded. One of the awardees who had the great honor to receive the Hefei Friendship Award for Foreign Experts [外国专家“友谊奖”] was Prof. Dr. Thomas Weise (who had already received the Friendship Award of our district, the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Area, in 2018).

After the award ceremony, a forum where the foreign experts could give opinions about the development of our city and suggestions to improve the environment in our city was held. It was chaired by Mr. Qunying HUANG [黄群英（安徽省合肥市科学技术局局长）], Director of the Hefei Science and Technology Bureau, who himself is an excellent researcher. Prof. Weise was one of the experts who gave a talk in this forum. All experts agreed that Hefei offers an excellent environment for both international and national researchers and innovators. Especially the investment in education, science, and infrastructure and the resulting incredibly fast development of our city were praised in several independent speeches. Several constructive comments and suggestions were put forward as well. Mr. Weiming WANG emphasized on the importance of the suggestions to help our city to further improve its environment, innovative power, and the situation of its foreign experts.

Hefei has been voted among the top-ten of most favorite Chinese cities for foreign talents for three years in a row. If we put together all the positive aspects that were mentioned by the experts attending the meeting, then this is only a logical result: Hefei is a city that offers excellent working and living environments for foreign talents, many incentives for innovators, an outstanding infrastructure and strong administrative support.