From July 15th to 16th, the final round of the 2023 Global Brand Planning Competition was held in Singapore. The competition was organized by the Business Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Global Chinese Marketing Alliance. Our university's 'Wuyou Oil' team, composed of international students in China, won the Gold Medal (there were only four awards in the competition, and the team of international students in China was the only one to receive this award) and the Best Team Presentation Award (the only team to receive this award in the competition). This is the first time that our university's students have made it to the finals and the first time they have won a gold medal.

The inspiration for this brand planning project came from the period of the construction of the Tazara Railway, during which the African people used locally produced high-quality massage oil, 'Wuyou Oil,' to support those who came from afar and to alleviate the fatigue and pain endured by the Chinese builders in the scorching heat. The project's goal was to address how products could enter the markets of 'Belt and Road' countries with a new brand image in the context of the expanding circle of friends in the 'Belt and Road' initiative. The brand name 'Wuyou Oil' combines the pure and natural aspirations of the African people with the sincere wishes of 'wu you wu lu' (meaning 'carefree' in Chinese).

The team was composed of four undergraduate students majoring in International Economics and Trade, E-commerce, Clinical Medicine from Tanzania, Botswana, Morocco, and one Ph.D. student majoring in Management Science and Engineering. Undergraduate students Saeed Abdulaziz Mohamed and Khalil Bouzafour, majoring in International Economics and Trade, made significant contributions to the project research.