On January 17, STL Dean Philip McConnaughay participated with the former President of Croatia, the Ambassador Extraordinare of the Slovak Republic, the Mayor of Bacău, Romania, the Deputy Mayor of Athens, Greece, and senior government officials of Shenzhen, Hainan, and Shanwei in the “2018 Forum for International City Partnership and Industry Cooperation under the Belt & Road Initiative, ” organized by the China Federation of Industrial Economics and Development Research Center of the Shenzhen Municipal Government.
The principal purpose of the Forum was to explore opportunities for enhanced cooperation and to promote innovation across economies within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Shenzhen’s unique role as one of the largest drivers of innovation in the world was central in all discussions of how to facilitate economic exchange in the BRI.
Dean McConnaughay’s remarks focused on the striking parallels between the massive infrastructure investment China currently is making in roads, high-speed rail, and ports interconnecting BRI countries and the extraordinarily rapid urbanization and economic growth that resulted from China’s massive infrastructure investment interconnecting the major cities of the Pearl River Delta over the past few decades.
