Recently, Feng Xiating, President of NEU, met with a delegation led by Abigail Shoniwa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to China, in Room 308 of Hanqing Hall. Xu Wei, Vice President of NEU, attended the meeting. Representatives from the Embassy of Zimbabwe in China, Midlands Province, and Midlands State University joined the meeting. Relevant officials from the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange of NEU also attended the meeting.

Feng Xiating introduced the history of NEU and its disciplinary strengths, and gave an overview of its cooperation with Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. He stated that NEU has remarkable disciplinary strengths in mining, metallurgy, as well as information-related fields such as artificial intelligence, control science and engineering, computer science, software engineering, and industrial intelligence. These strengths are highly aligned with the development plan of Midlands Province which is rich in mineral resources and is continuously advancing raw material value addition. A preliminary foundation for cooperation has already been established with Midlands State University. In the future, NEU will explore practical cooperation with Midlands State University through student exchanges, joint scientific research, and industry-university-research cooperation. These efforts will serve local economic and social development and support the realization of Zimbabwe's "Vision 2030".

Abigail Shoniwa expressed appreciation for NEU’s development achievements. She introduced Zimbabwe’s “Vision 2030” and the national development strategy, noting that the country is actively advancing industrialization and promoting value addition to raw materials. She also highlighted that Midlands Province is a key mining and industrial region in Zimbabwe. She expressed the expectation that Midlands State University and NEU would implement the cooperation framework agreement between two institutions. The two universities are expected to advance collaboration in areas such as student exchanges and joint scientific research in fields including mining and metallurgy, thereby supporting the industrial development of Midlands Province.