In the morning of June 6th, 2018 Arc Cup International Welding Competition, which is the first competition of the 2018 Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition started in Zhuzhou, Hunan, China. There was almost 1000 people including the participants from all over the world, including the representatives from the BRICS BC, the main leader of IIW, CWA, CWS, CAI, the government of Zhuzhou city, Haidian management committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, professors and experts and social elites.

 2018 Arc Cup International Welding Competition is the opening Competition of the 2018 Belt and Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition and an important Competition project of china selection competition for 2018 South Africa BRICS Skills Challenge, which is aim to build an international cooperation platform, speed up the training of the welding talents, promote and strengthen the technical welding level.

       388 welders from 71 competition teams participated in the Competition, including 20 international teams about 112 competitors, some from the BRICS countries, such as Russia, India, South Africa, China; some from the Belt & Road countries, such as Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Czech, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Iran, Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, Singapore; and the other countries, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal and Ghana. 276 welder representatives from 15 China central enterprises, 33 high & middle vocational schools, welding related enterprises and social organizations participated in the competition. Moreover, Hong Kong, China also sent welders to the Competition.

     The competition has received strong support and extensive participation from the Chinese government and the BRICS countries. Leaders and experts at all levels attended the opening ceremony and the related activities. Professor. Pan Jiluan, a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua university professor; Ms. Cécile Mayer, The chief executive of the International Institute of welding; Mr. Zhang Yanmin, the vice President of China Machinery Industry Federation, and the vice executive director of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society; Mr. Yu Huarong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary General of the China Invention Association; Mr. Yang Shengyue, vice mayor of Zhuzhou Municipal Government; so on all levels of leaders and experts attended the opening ceremony and related activities.

     Ms. Ester Van der Linde, from South African MerSETA, and also a representative from SA BBC SDWG and Dr. Liu Zhenying, who is the Chairman of China Section of BRICS Business Council SDWG, Secretary General of Organizing Committee of Arc Cup International Welding Competition held the opening ceremony together.

     2018 Arc Cup International Welding Competition, consisting of the Fifth International Robot Welding, which held in Dongguan, Guangdong, and the Second International Welding Technology Competition and the Sixth International Welding Skills Competition, would be a fierce competition.
     Started from 2010, it has successfully held five sessions of the Arc Cup International Welding Competition and has currently been the associated events of the International Institute of Welding. Up to now, it has been more than 1000 domestic and international welding talents communicated and exchanged best practice by this platform. The achievements of the Competition have been highly recognized by the international community, known as the "World Arc Cup", and become one of the most influential international welding competitions.

    It has significant importance of this Competition.
    Firstly, the participation range of competition is wide and the participation level of the skilled talents is high.
    Almost all of the international competitors of the Arc Cup International Welding Competition are the national winners of their countries. Meanwhile, most of the domestic competitors are selected from the central enterprise or the universities through different kinds of selection.

    Secondly, it is an effective international skill training platform.
    The Arc Cup International Welding Competition is a fabulous feast for the talents in the welding industry from different countries to learn from each other about the welding skill, to arouse the enthusiasm of the welders to explore welding technology and the enthusiasm to study welding skills.    Moreover, it has also trained a large number of skilled people who can meet the international engineering requirements, and technical talents who are familiar with the international technical standards. The winners from the Competition will speed up to adapt to the international environment with the international skilled talents, in order to solve the problem of the local talents training of the Chinese enterprises, promote the harmonious and unified national skill standards. We would make the skill talented person as the forerunner of the Belt & Road area, paving the way for the construction along the Belt & Road countries.
    Thirdly, The Arc Cup International Welding Competition is the opening competition of the 2018 Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition, will also become the cornerstone of the BRICS skill development and then become a worldly skill development platform.
    2018 Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition is one of the political, economic and cultural exchanges between Belt & Road and BRICS countries and an important long-term mechanism for BRICS cooperation. After 2018 Arc Cup International Welding Competition, there will be 16 other competition projects going to be held respectively in Mongolia, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing and Yunnan for china division. It is expected to have ten thousand people to participate in the Competition. Later, winners will go to Russia and South Africa for the final competition.

    The Organization unit of the Competition “International Alliance of Skills Development” is an international platform for skills training, certification harmonization, competition, technique exchange and talents flow. And now there are over 150 members. In the future, the members will strengthen their cooperation to speed up the cultivation of skilled professionals.
    We expect that the competition projects of the BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition could root in China and develop around the world to promote global skills development in skills training, skilled professionals cultivation, skills research, and cultural exchanges.