The OBOR Initiative and PPP in the perspective of the Global Supply
Chain Transformation
CityU MBA SHARP Forum presents: Phoenix TV Century Forum – The One-Belt-One-Road initiative and the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in the perspective of the Global Supply Chain Transformation was held on January 13th in the Multimedia Theatre of Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre at CityU. Student committee for the CityU MBA SHARP Forum was proud to take part in the promotion and event management of the event. More than 160 audiences comprising of CityU colleagues, students, alumni and public visitors joined the forum, which was recorded by Phoenix TV to be broadcasted in mid-February 2017.
Ms. Tián Tóng, the program host kick-started the forum by discussing with the honorable guest speaker Prof. Houmin Yan, Dean of College of Business and the Acting Director of Research Centre on One-Belt-one-Road at CityU about the controversial issues on the OBOR initiative and the PPP projects. Dean Yan then provided the audiences with a high-level summary of the key concepts in OBOR and PPP with the history of the Silk Road using the latest geo-economic data and diagrams. He further explained the conceptual framework of OBOR by discussing Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which is a significant development strategy launched by the Chinese government in promoting economic co-operation for more than 50 countries along the proposed Belt and Road routes.
By comparing the OBOR initiative with previous economic plans namely the Marshall plan after World War II initiated by the U.S. government and the Juncker plan announced by European Commission in 2014 after the European debt crisis to highlight the importance of the five unique major goals in the OBOR: policy co-ordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds, Dean Yan concluded the forum with four important areas to consider in the PPP co-operation: 1. infrastructure needs in carrying out the initiatives, 2. co-operation mechanism and the selection of projects: soliciting the private enterprises and maintaining its profits in a long run, 3. management of the partnership: operation of the private sector vs asset/services delivery of the public sector, and 4. crisis management: modifying the business models to sustain the cooperation.
In the Q & A session, CityU MBA students had raised a few questions viewing the OBOR Initiative from the perspectives of Hong Kong to countries along the routes and the well-developed countries such as US and UK. The program finally ended with thought-provoking discussions by Dean and the audiences.
Behind the scenes: The Student committee put much effort to promote the event through various online and social media platforms and also ran an offline promotional campaign consisting an introductory exhibition on OBOR and PPP, a big wall banner and posters to raise the students and visitors’ attention about the event on CityU campus. Watch the video archive of this program online: [ Click to view ]