Chamber Vice President Massimo Bagnasco Speaks at 2019 Belt and Road Digitisation International Summit

2019-05-18 | Beijing

On 18 and 19 May 2019, the European Chamber attended the 2019 Belt and Road Digitisation International Summit, where an array of officials, experts, academics and business leaders exchanged on topics including Digital Belt and Road related opportunities and challenges, intelligent manufacturing and data governance.

The Summit was hosted by China Info100, China Wanxiang Holding Co., Ltd, and the Xiaoshan District People’s Government of Hangzhou, sponsored by Munchner Kreis, the Zhejiang Intelligent Manufacture Expert Committee and Beijing Guoshuang Technology Co., Ltd, organised by the Beijing Info100 Information Economy Research Institute and the Zhejiang-Turing Research Institute, and supported by China Labs and the European Chamber.

European Chamber Vice President Massimo Bagnasco delivered a keynote speech, underlining the importance of meaningful and reciprocal cooperation along the Digital Belt and Road. According to Vice President Bagnasco, such cooperation is predicted on critical factors such as inclusiveness, quality and sustainability. It is important that European companies be allowed to have greater access to more timely and accurate details for Digital Belt and Road projects and to follow tendering systems that are aligned with international norms; that small- and medium-sized enterprises be given additional support for participating in relevant projects; and that quality and sustainability in all their dimensions be respected, be they technical, economic, environmental or social. In Vice President Bagnasco’s view, interoperability and cross-border data flows, as well as the timely completion of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, are also key to Digital Belt and Road success.

Other key speakers of the Summit included but were not limited to Yang Xueshan, Chairman of China Info100 Academic Committee and Former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT); Fransisco Monge, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica and Chair of the Bureau of the OECD Development Centre’s Policy Dialogue Initiative; Latif Ladid, President of the Global IPv6 Forum; Jiang Qiping, Director of the Research Office of Informatisation of the China Academy of Social Sciences; and Chen Yubo, Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.