“The Future of the Chinese Economy” was the second event hosted by Dr. Dominique Jolly, Chair of the Walker School of Business for Webster Geneva Campus, on the topic of China and took place in the Living and Learning Center (LLC) on Wednesday, Oct. 11 on the Webster University Bellevue campus. The opening speech began at 2 p.m. and was given by Dr. Clementina Acedo, Director of Webster Geneva Campus.
The first key-note speaker, Christophe Weber, President of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce set the bar at a high level through his presentation of “China Transformation Map.” Mr. Weber gave his expert, first-hand knowledge of China and its changing economy from his previous experience in China as executive director, head of Greater China and chief representative of the World Economic Forum. He spoke of China’s economic growth and change in recent years which has helped approximately 100 million people recently come out of poverty and he ended with a Chinese proverb highlighting their spirit of innovation, “When the wind comes, some will build walls and some windmills.”
The second keynote address was given by the Chinese Managing Director for Voestalpine Precision Strip Trading in Suzhou, Mr. Hu Jianping. “Perspectives for the Next Decade — A view from Business” was his topic and he gave examples of futuristic health care systems, online shopping and mobile telephones which all use Big Data and described a payment system that may one day make credit cards obsolete. He also gave staggering statistics; 420 billion euros of online shopping, 500 million mobile phones using the payment system which in 2016 amounted to 28 trillion euros in mobile phone payments and more than 400 million people currently using 5G. The growth of hi-tech has paralleled the movement of people to the cities with approximately 900 million people now residing in cities across China. He predicted that all of these numbers will rise in the future and used a Chinese proverb to show the importance given to innovation: “Cross the river by feeling the stones” which means try things to see if they work.
A full summary of the event, including each panel can be read here.
Videos of the participants made by Dukascopy TV can be found here: