A delegation from Singapore headed by a Senior Minister of State in the ministries of Trade and Industry and National Development, Mr. Lee Yi Shyan paid a working visit to Novosibirsk and had a meeting with the NSU authorities.
The meeting was attended by the NSU Rector Mikhail Fedoruk, NSU prorectors and a group of scientists and businessmen including Sergei Belousov, General Director of the Parallels Company, and Alexander Aseev, Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The meeting was devoted to the opportunities for close cooperation between NSU and the National University of Singapore.
In the course of the reception Mr. Lee Yi Shyan said that it was his first visit to Novosibirsk but he had heard of NSU and Akademgorodok as a big scientific center. 鈥淪ingapore also tries to be the center of knowledge, thus getting to know the experience of developing intellectual thought and expertise is very interesting for us. Singapore being a small country without natural resources, the main resource we possess is our people. As a result, we invest heavily in education. We need people to conduct research and do our best to encourage students to study science and technology,鈥� explained the minister.
According to the minister, it is getting harder and harder to involve people into studying science and technology, but there is a huge potential of applied development, especially in Asia. 鈥淔irstly, the process of urbanization is very active, cities are growing fast. The question arises as to how to provide their steady development, which requires technological solutions. Secondly, there is the trend of the middle class growing, which increases consumption per household. Thirdly, digital technologies and devices are becoming more and more common.鈥�
In his turn, Mikhail Fedoruk mentioned that the visit of our Singapore guests is, unfortunately, a bit too short to learn about the whole Akademgorodok in details. 鈥淭he University and research institutes of Novosibirsk Scientific Centre constitute a whole. Founders of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences were essentially the founders of NSU.鈥�
The Rector emphasized the interconnection of education, science and innovations behind the project from the very beginning. 鈥淏ack in the USSR times it was called the 鈥楲avrentiev鈥檚 triangle鈥�. Now the University is moving to a new level and is highly interested in cooperation with the National University of Singapore,鈥� said Mikhail Petrovich.
The meeting outlined the ways of possible cooperation between the universities. Mr. Lee Yi Shyan expressed his hope to start activities in collaboration beginning with the interuniversity level.
