On April 17 to 20, local time of Moscow, at the invitation of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, Liu Xiangbing, deputy secretary of the Party committee and president of our unviersity led a three-member delegation to Russia for a friendly visit.

On April 18, Nikolai Grychenko, Honorary President of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, warmly welcomed President Liu Xiangbing and introduced the teaching and research organizations to develop the international federation of human resources in the labor and social fields, and gave detailed introductions to the first international academic conference to commemorate Professor Kostin's academic achievements. President Liu Xiangbing introduced the history, industry background, labor discipline characteristics of our unviersity, and highly praised Professor Kostin's strong support and help for the training and educational teaching of the cadres of our unviersity as a Soviet expert on labor economics in the 1950s, reviewed the long-standing cooperative relationship between the two universities and hoped to carry out diversified cooperation around the two universities' development and consolidate the friendship between the two universities. The two sides fully conducted consultations and exchanged opinions on areas such as continuing exchanges between teachers and students, exchanges of students, teacher visits, enrolling international students, teaching and research cooperation, exchange of academic journals, and research results, and reached a preliminary consensus. President Liu Xiangbing and his delegation also visited the campus, teaching and living facilities, library, museum, etc. of the school and talked with students in classrooms.

On April 19, President Liu Xiangbing and his delegation took part in the first international academic conference entitled “Labor under the Digital Economy” which is named after Kostin. The opening ceremony was hosted by Nina Kuzmina, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and rector of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations. Speeches were then delivered by Mikhail Shmakov, Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, Andrey Kostin, son of Professor Kostin, chairman of the board of VTB Bank and director of Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University, together with the leaders and experts from the Russian Tripartite Commission for Regulation of Social and Labor Relations, Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, Moscow Bureau of the International Labor Organization, Russian Federation of Industry and Commerce and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Labor of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation.

President Liu Xiangbing made a keynote presentation titled "Digital Economy and Future Education", proposing that in the context of the epoch-making trend of the third technological revolution and digital economy transforming the world in a future-oriented way, a new round of global technological and industrial revolutions are flourishing. China's future education will closely keep up with the trend in three aspects: firstly with respect to technology, China will make full use of information technologies to expedite the IT-based development of education; secondly with respect to content and methodology, China will develop STEAM education to narrow the gap between the needs of the times and training of talents; thirdly with respect to institutional system, China will actively advance lifelong education and create a lifelong learning system backboned by formal education. His presentation received unanimous recognition of all the attendants. Qiao Jian, Associate Professor from the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources made a presentation titled "Quality and Efficiency Improvement of Trade Union System with Chinese Characteristics" at the sub-forum of "New Characteristics of Social Engagement and Trade Union Movement in Digital Economy". Professor Xu Yanli, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office submitted a paper titled "New Challenges of Gig Economy to China's Social Security System" to the forum.

On April 20, President Liu Xiangbing and his delegation visited the mansion of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia. Led by a docent of the Russian trade union museum, they appreciated the building and museum with rich historical heritage, and the historical documents, photos and some exhibits collected by the museum showed the century-long history of the Russian trade union. In the solemn conference hall of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, President Liu Xiangbing and his delegation met with Nina Kuzmina, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and rector of the Academy of Labor and Social Relations. President Liu Xiangbing noted that the Academy of Labor and Social Relations has similarities with our unviersity in terms of trade union background, discipline settings and training of trade union cadres and the two universities should continue to deepen cooperation and bear new achievements. Vice Chairman Nina Kuzmina briefly introduced the basic situation of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and emphasized that the Academy of Labor and Social Relations is a directly-affiliated higher education institution and a think tank of the Federation, and willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with our unviersity. During the talks, President Liu Xiangbing presented to Vice Chairman Nina Kuzmina a photocopy of the work of the Soviet Union's experts working and living in our unviersity in the 1950s collected by our unviersity’s History Museum, and a literature copy of the first training of the union's cadres in our unviersity (including Soviet scholars' lectures). Vice Chairman Nina Kuzmina said that this is a precious historical imprint and a symbol of friendship between the two countries' trade unions and the two universities. In a harmonious atmosphere, the two sides renewed their cooperation agreement.