The Chinese Academy of Forestry Science awarded an honorary doctorate to Tarja Halonen, the Finnish President. This was the first of the kind of the honor ever awarded to a foreign president.
On hand at the awarding ceremony were Chen Zhili, the Minister of Education, Xu Guanhua, the Minister of Science and Technology, Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Bureau of Forestry, and Zhang Zhijian, Chinese Ambassador to Finland.
Jiang Zehui, president of the academy, awarded the Finnish President the honorary doctorate certificate at the ceremony.
Finland abounds in forestry resources, playing an important role in global ecological protection. Thanks to the attention and support of President Tarja Halonen, the cooperation in forestry between China and Finland has been active and fruitful. It plays a positive role in promoting the exchange and cooperation in forestry education, forestry resource management, timber processing, forest machine-building and forestry product trade. Owing to an important role played by the Finnish President, China was able to have its proposal on forestry protection and scientific and technical cooperation in sustainable development materialized at the 4th Asia-European Leaders? Conference, making an active contribution to the healthy development of Asia-European forest and ecological protection.
After the occasion, the Finnish President attended a ceremony to mark the signing of the agreement between China and Finland in forestry science and technology cooperation and met with the delegates who were attending a Sino-Finnish seminar on forestry management and investment.
(www.cenews.com.cn December 9, 2002)
