Dear ITA Colleagues,
Thanks to the digital tools available nowadays, ITA can continue its work in a digital way even during this difficult time. Currently, ITA ExCo has more frequent meetings then ever before, increasing from 5 meetings in a normal year in the past to monthly meetings now. Moreover, we have organized more digital training courses this year, that is, the ITA-CET monthly lunchtime online lecture, which received positive feedback.
With the recent surge in digital activities, it has become a common practice to add an additional digital event to physical events to reach more participants. Last week, I attended in person the 2021 Shanghai International Tunnelling Symposium, which was held on April 18th and 19th. The event, taking advantage of digital technology, not only gathered around 500 in person participants but also attracted around 2 million real time online visits!
As you know, one of our priorities is to communicate with international banks to share knowledge and increase the contributions of tunnelling in implementing Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2019, we have been communicating with AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). Both sides have known more about each other and realized there were various opportunities for cooperation. This year, on March 23rd, we organized an initial ITA-AIIB meeting in AIIB headquarters in digital and physical ways. Both sides have agreed to work together on joint workshop, training courses and capability building related to tunnelling and underground space.
Last but not at least, the 47th General Assembly is going to be held digitally on June 30th. I am looking forward to meeting you all soon!
Yours sincerly
