李鹏同志曾多次强调指出,高等院校要根据社会的需要,明确自己的任务,在不同层次上办出各自的特色和水平。在深化改革开放,实行沿海经济发展战略的新形势下,我们上海外贸学院的任务就是为国家培养更多德智体能全面发展的、高水平的外经贸人才。经济的竞争,首先是人才的竞争。近二十年来,为适应经济发展与市场竞争的需要,欧、美、日等工业发达国家, Comrade Li Peng has repeatedly stressed that universities and colleges should clearly define their own tasks according to the needs of society, and set their own characteristics and levels at different levels. Under the new situation of deepening reform and opening up and implementing the strategy for the development of the coastal economy, the task of our Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade is to provide the country with more talents with a high level of moral, physical, and all-round development and a high level of foreign trade and economic cooperation. The economic competition is first and foremost the competition of talents. In the past two decades, in order to meet the needs of economic development and market competition, industrialized countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan have