China today, progressing with each passing day as rising power, is standing firmly in the East with the total economic output ranked as the second largest and the total industrial production ranked as the largest in the world. China, as a nation that experienced unparalleled engineering and construction activities in human history, has obtained many remarkable achievements in aspects of engineering construction, engineering technology and engineering management. The Chinese government, upon the basis of a complete analysis and evaluation of the situation, prescribed such important development strategies as the “One Belt and One Road” (“The Silk Road Economic Belt” and “The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road”) cooperation and infrastructure interconnectivity construction. For engineering management in China, this presents not only a magnificent opportunity to become more international and more influential in the world, but also a brand new challenge that requires performance in engineering activities of greater scales and in more cross-cultural contexts. In this context, it is of great significance to gather together top management professionals from China and other parts of the world, to communicate on engineering management body of knowledge, and to promote dialogues and cooperation between the communities of engineering management of China and the world.
On May 16th to 17th, 2015, the 9th China Engineering Management Forum, co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the People’s Government of Guangzhou, was held in Guangzhou. China Engineering Management Forum was initiated and established for the first time in Guangzhou in 2007, and it has been held nine times continuously and has already become a grand meeting in the field of engineering management in China, presenting the highest levels, the latest achievements and the best practices. For nine years, China Engineering Management Forum has always been adhering to the guiding principles of the combination of theory and practice, the combination of discipline construction and professionals formation, and the combination of scientific exploration and philosophical thinking, so as to lift the Chinese voice, to form the Chinese character, and to disseminate the Chinese experience, in the field of engineering management. These Forums played an irreplaceable role in the construction of the theoretic system, the disciplinary development, the personnel preparation and the in-depth improvement of practice, for Chinese engineering management. On this 9th Forum, more than 500 attendees conducted in-depth discussions, exchanged experiences and achievements, explored approaches for construction of the theoretic system and development of the discipline of engineering management, outlined the critical problems in the process of development that need immediate solutions or suggestions for solutions, then heralded the development trends of engineering management. The attendees arrived at a common understanding and formed “The 9th China Engineering Management Forum Guangzhou Consensus”.
Central missions to promote interrelation and coordination
Engineering technology and engineering management play an important role in the achievement of the “One Belt and One Road” development strategy and the promotion of infrastructure interconnection and coordination. China has gained profound experiences in major and complex engineering in such projects as “two bombs and one satellite”, manned spaceflight, the Three Gorges Dam, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, high-speed railways, road and bridge construction, the West-to-East natural gas transmission project, the West-to-East electricity transmission project, and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and through systematic research, has gradually formed Chinese theories of engineering management. But in the process of internationalization, Chinese professionals will have to meet a great variety of challenges such as change of natural environment, diversity of legal environment, and differences of cultures and customs, and will have to profound and advance engineering management theories that have relevancy and currency with the times and the circumstances, through continuous exploration and research.
Meet the realistic challenges of green and low-carbon technologies
Constraints of resources and environment confine all human societies. Demand of constant elevation of the degree of greenization and low-carbonization makes one of the main challenges of engineering management for a long time. The attendees at this forum acknowledged that, development of engineering sciences and technologies can provide powerful supports to the solution of the resources and environment problems, but, as an important measure of human beings to transform and influence nature, engineering cannot eventually form any sustainable virtuous circle between human beings and the natural environment they depend upon, and cannot either provide any necessary guarantee to the sustainable development of the human society without establishing the new engineering idea of “unity of man and nature” in the practice of engineering management. Therefore, it is an important task for future engineering management professionals to innovate and disseminate engineering management theories that best meet the requirements of green, low-carbon and sustainable development, and to improve these theories constantly in practices.
Construct the body of knowledge of the discipline with Chinese characteristics
China made remarkable achievements in the construction of the information society and in the completion of the large special engineering projects in a great variety of fields, and these achievements greatly promoted the rapid development of the Chinese discipline of engineering management discipline. The engineering management discipline, with all the characteristics of modern disciplines of professional, comprehensive and applicable qualities, has become an important domain of the higher education system of China, and has brought up a large number of outstanding professionals for the development of Chinese engineering management. Given the tremendous tasks of engineering management in China, the attendees take it as the central missions to make serious reviews of the past experiences, to seek references from advanced foreign theories and methodologies starting from the engineering realities of China, to explore, construct and improve the system of engineering management theories and disciplinary body of knowledge with Chinese characteristics geared to the needs of engineering application, and to prepare high-quality professionals to serve the national innovation and development. The attendees suggest that the following measures be taken: make full use of the special and open-end funds, to support research work in the engineering management discipline; elevate the degree of internationalization of engineering management programs in higher education institutions, to increase the proportion of the content of international engineering management; and promote the establishment of a Chinese system of professional certification for engineering management compatible to and with the international systems.
Promote extensive international cooperation
The soul of engineering technology and management is openness. In the trends of peace, development, cooperation and win-win collaboration of the times, elevation of the level of internationalization of engineering technology and management has become a generally acknowledged idea of and an important means for the promotion of innovation of engineering technology and management for all the countries of the world. At present, all the countries of the world still have vehement demands for development of engineering construction, engineering technology and management; and therefore, the international community of engineering management is faced with unparalleled opportunities and challenges. It is already more and more urgent and necessary to promote the construction and completion of international engineering think-tanks in the cross-regional and cross-cultural in context, in order to extract and employ the best of the outstanding achievements of engineering technology and management of different countries, regions and civilizations, for the sake of the common enterprise of human development and advancement. The attendees suggest that measures be taken to, further increase the depth and openness of this annual China Engineering Management Forum, and hold the international summit forums on engineering management; further provide supports to the important journals of China on the field of engineering management to help them become renowned international journals; further develop international cooperation with the countries that have engineering management relevance, and obtain in-depth knowledge of the present situation and characteristics of engineering management of the other countries and exploit possibilities for joint engineering management education programs, as a communal effort to promote economic and social development and to improve people’s well-being in China and the countries of relevance.
The attendees arrived at a general agreement that, after years of ceaseless efforts, China has made enormous progress and remarkable achievement in engineering management theory and practice; that, in the next 10 to 20 years, it is necessary to make full use of strategic opportunities brought by the transformation of China’s economic and social development and the multiplication of China’s international influence as to further elevate the status of the discipline and gather outstanding talented professionals and, by way of taking root in China and extending services to the world, make China a more important role in engineering management home and abroad; and that, it is important to promote the elevation of China’s engineering management to the top level of the world, in order to make greater contributions to the great revival of the Chinese nation and to the prosperity and progress of all mankind as “a community of common destiny”.
May 17th, 2015
Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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