Between 5 and 7 September, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation held a congress in Chengdu (China) on sustainable development and innovations in mining industry. The congress was participated in by researchers from various counties - Singapore, Mexico, Chile, Australia, Great Britain, Malaysia, Taiwan, New Guinea, China, and Thailand. Russia was represented by a delegation of Voronezh State University led by Vice Rector for Research and Informatisation Vasiliy Popov.
Professor Konstantin Savko from the Faculty of Geology gave a plenary presentation “Principles of Sustainable Use of Mineral Resources in the Central Black Earth Region”. He talked about the way the mining industry is organised in our country and told the audience about the model of optimum utilization of mineral resources base under severe exposure to anthropogenic factors (for the Central Black Earth Region).
The congress also resulted in a four-party memorandum of understanding between VSU, Sichuan Institute of Nuclear Science and Geology, Sichuan Company of Engineering and Design in Nuclear Science and Geology, Sichuan Provincial Academy of Natural Resource Sciences.
A new partnership agreement with Sichuan Provincial Academy of Natural Resource Sciences was also signed. Our universities have been working together for 5 years on the problems of desert invasion and alien plant species in Russia and China. Within this period, members of the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism, the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and the VSU Botanical Garden participated in five joint expeditions in the Sichuan province. They also published a number of joint articles and implemented a project on the study of invasive plants supported by the Sichuan Department of Science and Technologies.
