The Secretariat of the International Botanical Congress (IBC) 2017 was inaugurated at a meeting attended by representatives from both the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Botanical Society of China on December 25, 2014, in Shenzhen. The meeting was held in the Office Building of the Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau. Prof. Song Ge, Secretary General of the Congress, attended the meeting on behalf of the Botanical Society of China. Mr. Ting-Feng Zhu, Secretary General of the Congress, and Dr. Guo-Bin Wang, Deputy Secretary General, attended the meeting on behalf of the Shenzhen Municipal Government. After a simple inauguration ceremony, the meeting continued as the first working meeting of the secretariat.
After the inauguration of the organizing committee of the XIX International Botanical Congress last October, preparatory work for the congress entered a new phase. One action was the inauguration of the secretariat of the Congress. The secretariat works as the representative of the organizing committee on day to day issues and is responsible for coordinating the work of other congress organizations. Members of the secretariat include personnel from the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Botanical Society of China.
The main purpose of the meeting was to plan for the Congress. Immediate actions of the secretariat were determined in the meeting.