Go to content

EVENTS

Event Highlights

"'BRI' 10th Anniversary: Review and Prospect"

2023-06-20

The Maritime Silk Road Society (MSRS) held a Forum Discussion "'BRI' 10th Anniversary: Review and Prospect" on 20 June. Mr Alex Wong, CEO of MSRS was the speaker. The guest speaker was Mr Rico Chan, Partner of Baker & McKenzie.

Mr Wong divided the sharing into two parts under the title of "'BRI' 10th Anniversary: Review and Prospect". The first part is a review of the past achievements, risks and challenges faced by the "Belt and Road Initiative" ("BRI"). He introduced the major progress of China's development and implementation of the "BRI" with the important milestones, as well as the developmental achievements of the Five Connections under the BRI. He then mentioned the various risks and challenges that the BRI has been facing since its inception, including political, economic, legal, default and cyber aspects, with a particular focus on geopolitics and geo-economy, detailing the impact of geopolitics and geo-economy on the promotion of the BRI and China's development. The second part is the future opportunities and challenges of the BRI. He pointed out that investment in the Belt and Road is facing opportunities arising from structural changes. The challenge is on how to achieve higher value creation in structural changes and make good use of the provisions under the RCEP agreement. In addition, he pointed out the challenges facing China in the global supply chain of new energy raw materials; outlined the future development of opportunities and challenges; and stressed that the advantages of the "Belt and Road" should be used to expand the community of common destiny and build a sound "Belt and Road" ecosystem.

Mr Chan gave a speech entitled “China Debt-Trap Diplomacy” and “Telling the HK/China Story”. He pointed out that China is often seen as benefiting from debt-trap diplomacy, and cited the Sri Lankan government incident in 2017, in which China won access to geostrategically important ports, as a typical example of debt-trap diplomacy. He went on to use the term debt trap diplomacy to explore how China has been deliberately smeared and misled by the Western media, when in fact the BRI is an internationally popular project. He mentioned that US President Joe Biden's "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership" (PGII) plan proposed this year is learning from China's BRI and trying to develop friendly investment relations with friendly nations. Finally, he reflected on how Hong Kong can further contribute to the BRI, and quoted Vice Premier Han Zheng's four hopes for Hong Kong's participation in the "BRI" in 2022, especially the third point: the hope that Hong Kong will strengthen people-to-people exchanges and attract more students and scholars to study in Hong Kong.

Participants responded actively with lively onsite discussions. The atmosphere was enthusiastic.

YouTube - China Railway Express: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cokfTRcGMRY

< Back