At about 3:00 p.m., April 7, the First Academic Exchange Conference of Shipping Development Institute (SDI) was held at the conference room of Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI). About 30 experts and scholars participated in this conference, including Director Sun Jiakang of SDI, Secretary-General Zhen Hong of SISI, Associate Dean Zou Yingying of the School of Law of Shanghai Maritime University (SMU), and Vice President Huang Youfang of SMU.

Li Gang, Deputy Secretary-General of SISI and Deputy Director of SDI, chaired the conference. At the conference, Deputy Director Huang Jing of SDI, introduced SDI's work plan in 2010; Director Sun Jiankang put forward the requirements for and objectives of SDI's work in 2010; SISI Secretary-General Zhen Hong shared his valuable visions on SISI’s approaches to support SDI and expressed cordial wishes for the development of SDI.

Associate Dean Zou Yingying, the distinguished expert invited by SDI, delivered an academic report on the "Effects of Rotterdam Rules on the Shipping Industry". In addition to illustrating in a detailed way the hot issues around policies and regulations in today's shipping industry, she also shared many valuable visions by linking with actual business operations. Winning praises from all the participants, the report was a real inspiration for shipping enterprises to carry out practical work under new situations.

Subsequently, the experts, leaders and researchers were involved in a brainstorming session in connection with the above academic report, benefiting each other with active suggestions and comments on SDI’s work plan.

SDI will organize similar academic exchange conferences on a regular basis in the future.