Industry Cooperation in Land and Sea, Promoting Sustainable Development

By Mikkel Larsen, iChongqing

Chongqing - On June 3, the Belt and Road Forum for Interconnected Land-Sea Development was held in Chongqing YuZhou hotel. During the second section of the panel-forum for "Industry Cooperation in Land and Sea Development: Promoting Sustainable Development," ten experts and scholars from home and abroad shared their ideas.

Sha Yongzhong, Vice President of Lanzhou University, commented that there are a large number of projects available: both traditional cooperation, and newly opened cooperation. They also shared their practical experiences with these projects and their results.

Wang Xuewin, President of Kunming Univesity of Science and Technology, said that in the construction of the Belt and Road, Yunnan is positioned as a radiation center for South Asia and Southeast Asia. As a university, it is actively participating in the development of the Belt and Road in accordance with the national strategy and goals for its own teaching, scientific research, and cultural exchanges. These advantages have been carried out in a series of cooperations in South Asia and Southeast Asian Countries.

For example, help the Laos National University establish its own master's, doctoral, and postgraduate training systems; cooperate to reform Laos' national level old mining technology to new technologies, and do energy engineering design and establish research centers. Also, cooperation with Chiang Mai University in Thailand has been established to create several professional research institutes and professional colleges, jointly cultivated and jointly researched innovation and entrepreneurship.

Okan Bagilov, from the Azerbaijan International Relations Research Center, said that the "Belt and Road Initiative can be seen to promote the development of land and sea linkages actively and to promote cooperation in different industrial sectors." Azerbaijan has also established some significant projects such as the Baku International New Port and the Baku-Tbilisi-Karls railway project.

It is worth mentioning that the "Baku-Tbilisi-Karls" railway project is an essential channel of a construction project under the belt and road framework, which will reduce the land transportation time between China and Europe to 15 days, twice as fast as standard shipping and cheaper than airfreight.

While sharing their real-life projects, the experts and scholars did not forget to also look at the opportunities and challenges.

Hong Feng, Chairman of the Siam Think Tank in Thailand, and assistant to the president of the Zhengda School of management in Thailand, said that in the cooperation between China and the United States, China has assumed the role of institutional leadership, and to some extent reduced the resistance to collaboration in the construction in the country. At the same time, in the cooperation between the two countries, China still has a significant advantage. China has a more similar social and cultural background, and there are large numbers of Chinese people living across Southeast Asia.

At the same time, it is also necessary to clearly understand that development will inevitably bring about competition. How to deal with the competition between China, Japan, Central America, Southeast Asia, India, and ASEAN countries will also be important.

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Belt and Road Forum for Interconnected Land-Sea Development Launched in Chongqing