One Belt One Road: How history never repeats, it rhymes
Long ago a group of mightily long and thread-like paths weaved through the hills, forests, and deserts to quench the thirst of traders from Europe to Asia. It was the major gateway for both continents to trade silks, spices, and other commodities, but also intangible wealth. In many ways, what we call the Silk Road is the forerunner to globalization, as it not only facilitated trade, but also exchanged religious, political, and cultural ideas.
A $23 trillion project to create Silk Road 2.0
Today, history is certainly rhyming with the onset of a $23 trillion project to create the Silk Road 2.0. The plan’s ambition has drawn much interest and so, from finance, construction, agriculture, maritime, and more, many are seeing the opportunity to trade over land, once again, with China.
The ambition of the BRI is set to change the course of global trade [image source PWC)
Last week, as a well-known marketing agency focusing on China market, Comms8 attended the Belt, Road, and Bridge Conference at the Honourable Artillery Company in Central London, which was kindly organized by ZYen and LongFinance.
The event was a meeting between the finance and tech community-based in London and China with the aim to form a functional bridge for each partner. The speakers and panel discussions had an insightful take on the rising influence of China in the financial sectors and emergent tech segments of IoT, cryptography, AI, and eCommerce.
Investment for the BRI will mainly involve SOEs acorss Asia (image source)
The most notable themes for the conference were the growing opportunities for Europe in the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and forming connections with China. Construction, finance, tech, and advisory services were all identified as being of strategic advantage for Europe. Many Chinese speakers, like Xu Jianguo, Senior Research Fellow at Peking University, and Professor Fan Gang, President of the China Development Institute, talked at length about how China’s growth is leading to the creation of new markets, not just new businesses.
Capitalizing on these trends is what Comms8 is best placed to do. Working as a local partner for businesses in the UK and China, we try to thread a strategy that can bind these two industrious regions together.
Going global?
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Main contact:
Carol Chan
Founder and MD of Comms8
+44 (0) 20 3289 4349
carol@comms8.com