In order to implement the nation’s strategy of promoting the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macau Greater Bay Area and the central government to the Macau work deployment in the new era, give full play to Macau’s active role in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macau Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), accelerate the Macau Special Administrative Region(SAR) integrating into the overall situation of national development, and further enhance the supporting and leading role of the Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area in national economic development and opening-up, on the afternoon of September 17th, Shunde Graduate School of USTB, Institute for the Development and Quality of Macau and National Materials Corrosion and Protection Data Center held the Signing Ceremony for the Joint Laboratory: National Materials Corrosion and Protection Data Center – Institute for the Development and Quality, Macau. The parties will rely on the location advantage of Macau and Foshan in the Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and policy advantage of the Macau SAR, give full play to their respective characteristics in talents, disciplines and scientific research, jointly promote the in-depth integrated development of Beijing, Guangdong, and Macau in talent cultivation, scientific research, achievement transformation, education and teaching, improve the overall innovation capability of the region, contribute to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macau Greater Bay Area and the BRI.

The Joint Laboratory is the first of it kind to be established jointly by a public capital institution of Macau SAR and a National Key University. It has received strong support from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education. It is an innovative contribution to the practice of “one country, two systems” and it will serve as a model for the in-depth cooperation between the Mainland and Macau in the field of scientific research. The completion of the Joint Laboratory will integrate the multilateral advantages of the Data Center, Institute for the Development and Quality, Macau, and Shunde Graduate School of USTB, providing new impetus for the rapid development of national and even global corrosion and protection research and engineering application.

At the signing ceremony, Mr. ZHANG Xiaotong, Mr. TAN Liwu and Mr. LI Xiaogang, respectively signed the Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Building National Materials Corrosion and Protection Data Center - Institute for the Development and Quality, Macau Jointly Laboratory. Mr. ZHANG Weidong, Mr. ZANG Yong and Mr. CHEN Haifan witnessed the signing.

According to the Agreement, the parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in talents cultivation, tackling major technical issues in the field of material corrosion and protection, promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, jointly building an international training institution on corrosion and protection along the BRI, and jointly holding high-level academic conferences. In the next stage, the laboratory will focus on building corrosion data observation point, and make it into the national corrosion data center, develop new digital corrosion monitoring technology based on building information model (BIM) and build coupling corrosion environment acceleration test platform jointly, carry out the accumulation of material corrosion data sharing work along the Belt and Road countries, and constantly promote new progress in their cooperation.

The Signing Ceremony is a strong alliance under the background of China’s major strategy of promoting the construction of the Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and the BRI. The cooperation aims to deepen cooperation and scientific and technological innovation among Beijing, Guangdong and Macau. It will give full play to each other’s advantages, pool innovation resources at home and abroad, and provide impetus to the high-quality development of Macau and Guangdong. Taking this cooperation as an opportunity, the parties will implement the major national strategic plans and carry out all-round, deep, wide, and high-level cooperation in combination with the actual needs of local social and economic development, jointly cultivate talents in teaching and technological innovation in the field of material corrosion and protection. By carrying out frontier and core technological innovation and scientific research cooperation, the building of the laboratory will jointly solve major scientific and technological problems in the national strategic plans and the development needs of local enterprises, constantly improve social service capacity, actively explore the path of industry, university and research with Macau characteristics, and jointly create a new paradigm of school-local cooperation in China. At the same time, the building of the Joint Laboratory will actively promote the integration of science and technology and economic development, realize relating technological and scientific research achievements transformation in the field of corrosion and protection, solve the technical problems in the construction of the BRI, accelerate the sustainable development, create a first-class innovation base in the field of corrosion and protection, and promote the creation of social values and economic benefits.

After the signing ceremony, the three parties held the “Corrosion Protection Contributes to National Development and Urban Construction” seminar. They discussed new achievements in the field of corrosion and protection, corrosion and protection mechanism, technology research and development and transformation of core technology, and they discussed new innovative measures to deepen the BRI.

During the meeting, Mr. ZHANG Weidong and his delegation visited University of Macau and met with Prof. GE Wei, Vice-President of University of Macau. The two sides agreed to strengthen exchange and cooperation in talent cultivation and scientific research.

Mr. ZHANG and his delegation also visited Macau Light Rapid Transit (LRT) System yard and investigated project department of the Fourth Macau-Taipa bridge. During the meeting, academician Prof. MAO Xinping expressed his sincere respect and best wishes to all the staff who worked for the building of the Fourth Macau-Taipa bridge. He points out that in view of Macau’s harsh marine climate environment, it is suggested that the bridge construction should pay attention to the corrosion and protection and monitoring, ensuring the Fourth Macau-Taipa bridge become a model project in the industry with long life and safe service. Mr. LI Xiaogang points out that Macau is surrounded by the sea on three sides and has a severe corrosive environment with high temperature and humidity. Therefore it is necessary to pay attention to the cumulative damage caused by environmental factors on important infrastructure and transportation equipment and continuously strengthen protection.