Program

09:00-09:45 Opening Remarks

Paolo Borzatta (Senior Partner, The European House – Ambrosetti)
Fan Gang (President,China Development Institute)
Li Junhua (Ambassador of China to Italy)
Massimiliano Fedriga (Governor, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy)

09:45-11:15 The New Silk Roads and How They Are Changing the Geo-Economic Outlook in Eurasia

Chair:
Paolo Costa (President Spea Engineering;former Ministry of Public Works and Mayor of Venice, Italy)

Speakers:
Enzo Quattrociocche (Secretary General, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)
Sodyq S. Safoev (First Deputy Chairman of the Senate;former Minister of Foreign Affairs,Uzbekistan)
Taleh Ziyadov (Director General, Baku International Sea Trade Port, Azerbaijan)
Cui Hongjian (Director of European Studies, China Institute of International Studies)

Presentation of the Position Paper:
THE 21st CENTURY MARITIME SILK ROAD
Investments, Trade and GVCs: The Role of Italy

Gianfranco Di Vaio (Head of Research, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy)
Q&A

11:15-11:45 Break

11:45-13:00 Managing Interconnectivity: Infrastructure, Policies, and Technologies to Bolster a Hyperconnected Eurasia

Chair:
Giovanni Tria (former Minister for Economy and Finance, Italy)

Speakers:
Zeno D’Agostino (Chairman, Trieste Port Authority, Italy)
Zhou Mi (Deputy Director, Institute of American and Oceania Study, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, China)
Qu Baozhi (Deputy Director, Institute of Science, Technology & Innovation, China Merchants Group)
Ahmad Ismayilov (Deputy Head of State Maritime Agency under the Ministry of Transports, Communications and High Technologies, Azerbaijan)
Zheng Xin (Research Fellow, China Development Institute)
Q&A

13:15-14:15 Luncheon

14:15-15:45 Bringing the Belt and Road to The Next Phase: Moving Factories Not Goods

Chair:
Fan Gang (President, China Development Institute)

Speakers:
Beniamino Quintieri (Chairman, SACE, Italy)
Li Wenwei (Executive Director, Marine Industry Development Company Limited, Shenzhen SEZ Construction and Development Group, China)
Stefano Beghi (Managing Partner Hong Kong Office, GOP, Italy)
Douglas Foo (President, Singapore Manufacturing Federation)
Ali Mehrez (Director, Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency)

Speech by:
U Thaung Tun (Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations, Myanmar)
Q&A

15:45-16:15 Break

16:15-17:45 Simplifying Complexity for Building Successful Businesses Along the Belt and Road: A Concerted Action Plan

Chair:
Paolo Borzatta (Senior Partner, The European House – Ambrosetti)

Speakers:
Huang Renwei (Vice President, Fudan Institute of Belt & Road and Global Governance)
Wang Honghai (Chief Economist, Tianjin Port Group, China)
Silvana Ballotta (CEO, Business Strategies, Italy)
Murat Salim Esenli (Ambassador of Turkey to Italy)

Speech by:
Mohammad Rastad (Deputy Minister and Managing Director of Ports and Maritime Organization, Iran)
Q&A

17:45-18:30 Closing Remarks

Giancarlo Cancelleri (Deputy Minister of Infrastructures and Transport, Italy)
Fan Gang (President,China Development Institute)
Paolo Borzatta (Senior Partner,The European House – Ambrosetti)

Highlights

In a world where unilateralism, protectionism and extremism prevail and economic growth remains sluggish, China will continue to uphold the principles of openness, cooperation and win-win, continue free trade, and work with other countries to promote an open, cooperative, innovative and Shared world economy.
Li Junhua, Ambassador of China to Italy

We should adhere to the principles of globalization and open economic development. The Belt and Road Initiative will promote prosperity and development of the economies and industries along the belt and road. With the construction of industrial parks and economic free trade zones and coordinated development, the main focus should be stimulation on local industrialization and expansion of manufacturing activity, rather than just the construction of transportation and infrastructure.
Fan Gang, President, China Development Institute

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region and Triestepossess unique set of advantages in Sino-Italy cooperation. Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region is the only European Commission-acknowledged “innovation area”, whereas Trieste has a large number of research institutes, with the largest number of researchers and the strongest research force in Italy.
Massimiliano Fedriga, Governor, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy

In today's world, no country can gain benefits unilaterally, only through win-win cooperation with other countries can one survive in the international market. Located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy has historically been an important strategic and economic center of Europe, but it has now lost this status.
Giancarlo Cancelleri, Deputy Minister of Infrastructures and Transport, Italy

European companies should seize this historic opportunity and actively engage in trade and investment with the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative that are in a rapid industrialization process. The Belt and Road Initiative is not just a so-called “China-initiated infrastructure project”, but a long-term partnership that can involve companies from countries along the route.
Paolo Borzatta, Senior Partner, The European House – Ambrosetti

Traditional geo-economic cooperation has certain limitations. Countries along BRI can overcome geographical limitations through infrastructure construction and upgrading, and overcome over-dependence on the ocean for trade through land and sea connectivity.
Cui Hongjian, Director of European Studies, China Institute of International Studies

The maritime silk road involves more than 600 projects worth around one trillion dollars. The maritime silk road countries are expected to grow significantly over the next five years. Among all the regions involved in the maritime silk road, Italy has the strongest global value chain linkages with Eastern Mediterranean thanks to geographical proximity and historical strategic and economic relations between the two economies. Nonetheless, Italy needs to increase its positioning in order to take advantage of the chances offered by Belt and Road Initiative.
Gianfranco Di Vaio, Head of Research, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy

“We want to bring connectivity to another level via Belt and Road Initiative.”
Murat Salim Esenli, Ambassador of Turkey to Italy

“Creating transport corridors needs a holistic vision and a comprehensive approach.”
Sodyq S. Safoev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uzbekistan

“We have to define concrete steps in order to build this project and Italy also can have an active part in a long term prospective.”
Bilateral or multilateral governments must reach a consensus on development first, as well as provide adequate intangible support such as laws and regulations, strengthen dialogue with financial institutions, and effectively supervise projects. Italian enterprises need to be encouraged to participate in Belt and Road Initiative related projects to enhance their competitiveness in the emerging markets.
Giovanni Tria, former Minister of Economy and Finance, Italy

“As a multilateral development bank, we believe that Belt and Road Initiative has to be a common path.”
Enzo Quattrociocche, Secretary General, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

“The Belt and Road Initiative is not an objective, but is an instrument to decide what we want to be in the future.”
Zeno D’Agostino, Chairman, Trieste Port Authority, Italy

BRI railway connection faces quite a few challenges. To name a few, unstable trade environment prevents partners to make manufacturing decision. With highly developed air and sea transportation, advantages of railway transportation need to be further explored. China-Europe CR Express train loads are unbalanced on a round trip due to different endowment and markets demand. Standards and requirements differ along the route, which increases risks of damage and has driven customers away. In addition, digital economy has changed the customers’ expectation for logistics. Posed with these difficulties, BRI countries are urged to collaborate in terms of administration, as well as improve infrastructure, apply new technology, and enhance service quality as a whole.
Zhou Mi, Deputy Director,Institute of American and Oceania Study, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, China

China’s advantage on hi-tech application should be fully utilized to improve service system and service quality of China-Europe CR Express.
Zheng Xin, Research Fellow, China Development Institute

“Innovation and digitalization are changing business models in a way we have never seen before. Digitalization does not mean only new infrastructure and ways of communication but especially new manufacturing model.”
Douglas Foo, President, Singapore Manufacturing Federation

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Program

09:30-10:00 Welcome Remarks

10:00-10:30 Tanira Kingi
The Māori economy

10:30-11:00 GUO Wanda, Executive Vice President, CDI
A New Prospect of China-New Zealand Economic and Trade Cooperation

11:00-11:30 HU Zhenyu, Director, Department of Sustainable Development and Blue Economy Research, CDI
Sustainable development practice of government, corporation, institute and NGO

11:30-12:00 CAO Zhongxiong, Executive Director, Department of New Economy Research, CDI
Transformation of and Challenge for Chinese Hi-tech Industrial Policies

12:00-13:00 Working Lunch

13:00-13:30 Florian Graichen
The New Zealand Bioeconomy

Highlights

Exploring the new mechanism of economic and trade cooperationbetweenChina and New Zealand

There isroom for growth in inter-industry trade between the two countries

China and New Zealand have been developing differentiated and complementary products, and the size of trade between the two countries has been on a continuous rise. New Zealand's exports to China are mainly food- and wood-based primary products, while China's exports to New Zealand are mostly capital and tech-intensive products. Take the import of logs and lumber as an example.Asthe process of urbanisation advances in China, about 200-300 million people will come to work and live in cities in the next 20-30 years. Such a process will bring greater demand for housing, furniture and in turn logs and lumber. New Zealand, as a sparsely populated country,suffers from the inadequate communications infrastructure and the insufficient development of electromechanical processing and manufacturing.Faced with a rapidly developing information age, the country urgentlyneeds the investment to upgrade its communications infrastructure andmodernise its industries and people's life. These factors mean that New Zealand needs to import a large number of electronic and electromechanical products from China. In 2018, New Zealand imported 9.58 billion US dollars worth of electromechanical products, of which 36.7 percent came from the Chinese market.

The two countries should promote trade facilitation and maintain steady and sustainable development of bilateral trade

Since the Belt and Road construction involveslarge flows of people and materials, and New Zealand is leading the world in the field of biosafety, the two countries can carry out cooperation in biosafety protection and testing as trade partners under the BRI framework. In facilitating the flow of goods, the BRI involves not only the material construction of infrastructure but also the technical upgrading of customs clearance facilities. The two countries can increase cooperation in areas such as the Joint Electronic Verification (JEV) system, mutual authentication arrangements and supply chain management. Meanwhile, the two countries can consider jointly establishing a supply chain hub under the Belt and Road network to build a high-quality supply chain system and reduce operating costs.

The two countries should collaborate in buildinga “Southern Link”

China is currently the second largest trading partner of South America, butthe spatial distance and aircraft range are restricting the flows of people and goods between the two. New Zealand,located in the heart of the South Pacific, can act as a vital and natural aviation hub and midway junction between China and South America to provide convenient mobility for passenger transport and multimodal freight transport. New Zealand is leading the world in the fields of customs facilitation and supply chain linkage. A regional hub in New Zealand will provide exporters with a wider choice of trade routes and lower their logistics costs.The flows of goods will drive the development of "southern link" and the multilateral trade among China, New Zealandand South American countries, bringing new growth points to allof them. In addition, treating South America as a third-party market, China and New Zealand can carry out pragmatic cooperation.They can leveragethe advantages of their complementaryindustries and pursue innovative modelsof cooperation. In this way, they can achieve a win-win situation while serving the development needs of South American countries.

Promoting China-New Zealand industrial cooperation in multiple dimensions

Enhancing cooperation in upgrading primary industries will bring new breakthroughs to the industrial development outlook of the two countries

New Zealand's exports are of a relatively monotonous mix and mainly resource-based products. The low-value-added primary industriescan make only a limited contributionto economic development but have a negative impact on the environment. New Zealand urgently needs to upgrade its traditional primary industriesto shift to the upper end of the value chain. However, the country does not have advanced modern industries. Its existing infrastructure and production equipment cannot meet the demand for increasing added value,and the government is making relatively inadequate investment in infrastructure. China has a comparative advantage in light industrial manufacturing and agricultural product processing,which provides a valuable reference for New Zealand in terms of production, manufacturing, supply system, online and offline marketing systems. As New Zealand shifts from primary industries to processing and manufacturing, the two countries should enhance cooperation in infrastructure and encourage Chinese companies to invest and set up plants in New Zealand.This will benefit New Zealand in its industrial upgrade,and bring new economic growth points to local communities while providing channels for Chinese capital to "go abroad" and for Chinesecompanies to "go out".

The two countries should deepen cooperation in high-tech industries and increase exchanges of personnel in the current complicated international context

In the Sino-US trade frictions, the United States has mainly increased tariffs on Chinese electronic information and biopharmaceutical products and stepped up control overexports of parts and technologiesto China. New Zealand is quickly building the world's healthiest technology ecosystems.It is active in technological innovation, and its research strengths in biotech, forestry technology and artificial intelligence are leading the world. New Zealand can fully tap into its advantages in high and new technology and act as an alternative market for Chineseexports as well as an alternative technology provider to China.In this way, it can further strengthen cooperation and exchanges with China in scientific and technological innovation while diversifying its own exports.

The two countries can cooperate in buildingthe network and mechanism for exchanges of scientific research personnel and join hands insetting up R&D centres and overseas innovation centres. Compared with other developing countries, China now has a lower conversion rate of scientific research results,which has been around 10 percent for a long time. The New Zealand government has been encouraging companies to invest in scientific research.This has promotedthe transfer of scientific achievements to industries and increased the contribution of science and technology to economic growth.

The two countries should explore the opportunities for cooperation in green energy, maritime economy and sustainable development

Pacific island countries can play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative, especially the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. However, due to their relatively monotonous industries and fragile economies, these countries rely too much on natural resources for their development. In cooperation with Pacific island countries, China and New Zealand should not just focus on infrastructure and connectivity, but they should also tap into their advantages in high and new technology and sustainable development to help these countries cope with climate change and improve their economic resilience.

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•