On November 25th, CVIC SE’s old friend and president of CVIC Software Services Canada Inc., Dr. Larry Symes was awarded the 2005 Qilu Friendship Award. Mr. Zhang Jianguo, vice director of the Foreign Expert Affairs Bureau of Shandong province conferred the diploma and medal to him. Dr. Jing Xinhai, president and CEO of CVIC SE, attended the celebrating conference and expressed his sincerest greetings and congratulations to Dr. Larry Symes.

In order to thank the foreign experts who have contributed greatly to Shandong’s social and economic developments, Shandong Provincial People’s Government has established this Qilu Friendship Award, the highest honor for foreign experts who have worked in Shandong province. Dr. Larry Symes, winner of Qilu Friendship Award 2005, has a long term relationship with Shangdong province. He and Dr. Jing Xinhai have been knowing each other since 1982, when Dr. Jing Xinhai came to the University of Regina as a visit scholar in Computer Science while Dr. Larry Symes was dean in Faculty of Science. After Mr. Jing Xinhai graduated from Regina University, Dr. Larry Symes has visited China for more than 20 times and every time he visited China he offered lots of constructive advice for the growth of CVIC SE. In August 2003, he was appointed to be Vice-Chair of the Board and President of CVIC SSC, an overseas branch company of CVIC SE, which is located in Regina, Saskatchewan.. Since then he started doing his best to expand the market of CVIC SE’s products and services in North America and tried his best to build CVIC SE to be a well-known software company in the world.

Back to Regina, Dr. Larry Symes has actively helped make arrangements for the visit of senior delegations from Jinan and Shandong. Meanwhile, he himself being an officer in the delegation of Saskatchewan, City of Regina and Premier Calvert has been to Jinan and Shandong many times. His great efforts has promoted the exchanges and cooperation between Shandong and Saskatchewan tremendously and helped the two provinces sign a cooperation agreement in October 2005. As a professor of University of Regina, Dr. Larry Symes has accelerated UofR’s ties with many universities in China.

Due to the outstanding contribution Dr. Larry Symes has made, Shandong Provincial People’s Government conferred the precious Qilu Friendship Award to our dearest friend and professor from Regina specially.