The School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM) and Toyota Motor Corporation have signed a joint agreement to establish the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) at Tsinghua University.

Vice President Xie Weihe and V ice Chairman of Toyota Nakagawa Katsuhiro signed the agreement March 1.

The aim of the Center is to promote education and research on public policy and management in China, so as to enhance communication, exchanges and understanding between academia, business circles, non-governmental organizations ( NGOs) and governments in China, Japan, and the rest of the world.

CIDEG will serve as a platform to provide policy research, academic exchanges, graduate education and on-the-job training industrial development, policies on resources, environment and sustainable development, as well as policies on industrial organization and regulation.

Th e agreement stipulates that Toyota will finance the development of CIDEG for five consecutive years with six million RMB annually. To preserve the Center's academic independence, Toyota will not be involved in its a cademic affairs.

Following the signing ceremony, the CIDEG's first board meeting and first Academic Committee meeting were held, and officers were elected. Chen Qingtai, former deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, and Dean of SPPM was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors; Wu Jinglian, a researcher of the Development Research Center of the State Council, and Aoki Masahiko，P rofessor Emeritus of Stanford University, were chosen Joint Chief Academic Advisers of the Academic Committee.

Reported by Liu Aixiang