(Correspondent: Wang Tianjian) From August 25^th to September 2^nd , Associate Professor Zhang Zhiqiang from the Institute of Urban and Regional Economics of our school attended the 62^nd Annual Congress of European Regional Science Association (ERSA) held at University of Alicante, Spain. The theme of the congress was “Urban Challenges and Sustainable Technical Revolution”.

Associate Professor Zhang Zhiqiang attended the parallel session “Spatial Economics” of the congress, commented on the papers presented in the session, and had heated discussions with worldwide famous scholars of spatial econometrics including Paul Elhorst, on topics such as the regional economic implications of econometric models and recent research progress. As a representative of Nankai University’s young scholars of regional economics, Associate Professor Zhang Zhiqiang had conversations with Professor Hans Westlund, the Chairman of Regional Science Association International (RSAI), introduced the development and international exchanges of Nankai University’s discipline of regional economics, and expressed Nankai University’s willingness to apply for the World Congress of RSAI. Professor Hans paid close attention to the development of Nankai’s discipline of regional economics, welcomed Nankai University to actively apply for the World Congress of RSAI, and planned to visit Nankai University in October 2023.

Associate Professor Zhang Zhiqiang had academic exchanges with Tomaz Ponce Dentinho, Chief Editor of Regional Science Policy and Practice, and planned to edit and publish a special issue of that journal on Chinese regional economic issues, in cooperation with Professor Xue Ling from the School of Public Administration of Peking University. In addition, Associate Professor Zhang Zhiqiang also met Matsuura Toshiyuki, Chairman of Regional Science of Japan and Sumana Bandyopadhyay, Chairman of Regional Science of India, and had discussions on issues including holding regional economics symposiums at Nankai University. Both of the two chairmen expressed their wishes of carrying out academic exchanges with Nankai University’s discipline of regional economics in the near future.

The ERSA Congress is an important annual conference of European Regional Science Association, which has by far been held for 62 times, with more than 1000 participants each year. The main academic activities of ERSA include organizing the ERSA Congress and summer school held once a year, and presenting the EPAINOS Award and the ERSA Prize in Regional Science to outstanding young scientists and outstanding European regional scientists, respectively. The members of ERSA include scholars, experts and policy researchers in fields such as urban and regional economics, city planning and economic geography. The 63^rd ERSA Congress will be held in 2024, in Azores, Portugal.