Horasis China Meeting14-15 October 2018, Kyiv, Ukraine

a Horasis leadership event

Co-hosts:China Federation of Industrial EconomicsGlobal Transformation Platform

Report

Upcoming Horasis events:

Horasis Asia Meeting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 25-26 November 2018

Horasis Global Meeting Cascais, Portugal, 6-9 April 2019

Horasis India Meeting Kyiv, Ukraine, 23-24 June 2019

Horasis China Meeting Las Vegas, USA, 28-29 October 2019

inspiring our future

Horasis is a global visions community dedicated to inspire our future. (www.horasis.org)

© Horasis

2018 –All rights reserved

The publication was prepared in cooperation with IE Business School, Madrid, Spain.

The statements quoted in the publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions ofHorasis and IE Business School. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmittedin any form or by any means.

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Horasis China Meeting14-15 October 2018, Kyiv, Ukrainea Horasis leadership event

Co-hosts:

China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE)

Global Transformation Platform (GTP)

Co-chairs:

Anson Chan Chairman, Bonds Group of Companies, Hong Kong SAR

Pat Cox President, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Switzerland; former President of the European Parliament

Feng Jiacheng Chairman, Guangdong Hunational Investment Industrial Co., China

Borja Gonzalez del Regueral Vice Dean, IE School of Human Sciences and Technology, Spain

Harry Hui Founder and Managing Partner, ClearVue Partners, China

Liu Changle Chairman, Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings, China

Shen Andong Vice Chairman, Beijing Automotive Group, China

Stan Fung Managing Director, FarSight Ventures, USA

Henry Shterenberg Chief Executive Officer, Global Transformation Platform, Ukraine

Jackie Wang Founder&President, China Women School and Future China Society, China

Sundeep Waslekar President, Strategic Foresight Group, India

Xuan Ruiguo Chairman, China Automation Group, China

Zhang Jianwei Vice Chairman, Sinotrans, China

Zhang Xiaodong Chairman, Winhopes International Group, China

Zhi Peng President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China

Co-organizers:

CCPIT

IE Business School

Oxford Analytica

Play UA

Silk Road Association of Ukraine

State Finance Institution for Innovations of Ukraine (SFII)

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Kyiv – host city of the Horasis China Meeting

View from the Convention Center Parkovy

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Convention Center Parkovy

Table of Contents

Foreword 6

Summary 16

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Foreword

By Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman, Horasis, Switzerland

The 14th Horasis China Meeting tookplace in Kyiv, UK over 14-16th October,2018. The meeting was hosted by theGlobal Transformation Platform and theChina Federation of Industrial Economics.

The location of the Horasis China Meetingrotates annually and in recent years has beenheld in Sheffield (2017), Interlaken (2016),Cascais (2015), Como (2014), The Hague(2013), Riga (2012), Valencia (2011) andLuxemburg (2010). With these meetingsHorasis aims to portray a systemic view ofactivities affecting the drivers of China’seconomic success and how Chinese busi -nesses interact globally within other nations.

The Horasis China Meeting was attendedby over 350 delegates, many were entrepre -neurs of the new guard representing China’srising private sector. Harry Hui, Founderand Managing Partner, ClearVue Partners,China, for example, during the openingplenary noted the cost of a business start-upin China has fallen dramatically and the newbusiness environment in China was freer,and more accepting of inwards investors.But even so, the Ukrainian business costsare smaller and Ukraine while stipulatingadherence to EU standards is physically closeto the EU market, though not actually amember – the only drawback in attractingmore Chinese investors is that the Ukraineis relatively unknown to them: the Ukrainiangovernment and its business people wishto remedy that omission.

Among the many subjects discussed in thismeeting were the destabilizing aspects ofthe US President’s sanctions spreading notonly in the US and China but also upon

intermediary traders who are hit by secon -dary sanctions, and how this so-called TradeWar affects the global economy. Delegatesnoted how the on-going BREXIT discus -sions might affect Chinese invest ments – inthe UK and in Europe – though given theUK’s inconclusive negotiations there waslittle to discuss. Also, discussions noted howthe progress of the Belt and Road (B&R)initiative is almost a global phenomenon byhelping develop innovation hubs in Asia,Africa, and the Middle East – into Europe’sfringes including the Ukraine, and eveninto the Caribbean and South America.

To open the meeting, Henry Shterenberg,Chief Executive Officer, Global Trans for -mation Platform, Ukraine presented anoverview to the meeting after delegateshad attended one of five Update Sessions.He enthused about the nature of Trans for -mation Platforms and illustrated their globalviewpoints and long-term targets. He gaveexamples of how Ukraine has global targetsbased on its position at the edge of Europe,having land borders with seven countries;its ports permitting even wider trade viathe Black Sea, which itself can be a funnelfor oil and gas as well as freight along theBelt & Road initiative. He opined “Ukrainehas global visions.”

Chairman Xiong Meng with the co-organizers of the Horasis China Meeting

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Vladimir Stavnuk, Head, State FinancialInstitution for Innovation, Ukraine, pointedout how Ukraine become a central hub onChina’s New Silk Road.

Ukraine’s position between Europe and Asia

Travelers on the old Silk Road would havesailed across the Black Sea, and many routeswould have reached (today’s) Ukraine. Itspromise, then, as now, are the many forwardland routes into Europe. This idea is notlost on the managers of the Black Sea Tradeand Development Bank (BSTDP) and theOPEC Fund for International Develop ment(OFID) as they agreed to promote theeconomic and social development of thecountries of the Black Sea region.

There is perhaps a stimulating competitionwith the nations bordering the Caspian Seaas their recent legal definition creates easiertrade for all across this sea. This mightpromote greater goods flow to and fromRussia through the Caspian Sea via Iran andthence by ship to Asia. Or by stimulatinggreater oil and gas flows from Central Asiannations to Europe via a mix of pipelines andshipping lanes. Ukraine could gain from both

aspects by offering enhanced transship mentopportunities in its ports, refinery capacityand onwards transshipment across its land.As Ukraine has large oil and gas reserves itcould benefit from greater integration in theCentral Asia to Europe fuel delivery routes.

In fact, there are many organizations in theUkraine tasked to inform as well as be focifor trade facilitation development betweenthe Ukraine and China – as all noted in thisHorasis meeting. Many speakers stressed thatinvesting in the Ukraine would be a successas it has great technological heritage (beingthe source for much of the former SovietUnion fundamental development) andpresently exports high quality technologyand equipment to China. One example isthe Antonov An-225 cargo plane designed inthe Ukraine. This can carry up to 200 tonsof freight, double that of the usual Airbusor Boeing, planes, and could be a useful linkbetween China and the Ukraine, stimu la tingthe growth of China-led manufacturing.

The Ukraine is presently depicted as alow-wage economy working within EUquality regulations: it is often called ‘thenext frontier economy’ as Daniel Bilak,Director, UkraineInvest, Ukraine implied,so is well poised to become a center for

James Brooke, Editor-in-Chief, Ukraine Business News, chairing the opening plenary

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Chinese firms’ penetration into Europe as afurther extension of its Belt and Road ini -tia tive. He further noted ‘Investments andopenness are the elements that drive oureconomy, and China shall be our key eco -nomic and political partner.’ A point furtheremphasised by Sergiy Nizhynskyi, Direc -tor, Secretariat of The Cabinet of Ministersof Ukraine, Ukraine, who emphasised that‘China’s path to an innovation-driven eco -nomy opens opportunities for capitalisation,investment and market access to Ukraine.’

Belt and Road initiative

During the opening dinner Xiong Meng,Executive Vice-Chairman, China Federa -tion of Industrial Economics, China notedin his address how the Belt & Road projectwould revolutionize global trade. It wouldindeed affect trade in the Ukraine.

Certainly the planners within the Govern -ment of China will have noted that theRoman roads, and earlier the original Silk

Road, showed that good safe highways in -crease trade and raise wealth for townspeopleas well as the traders. In modern China itsgovernment has vastly expanded its elec tri -fied railway network including the world’slargest net of very high speed trains andalso its roadway systems, mimicking theirrailways that offer higher and safer speedsbenefiting all types of trading opportunities.

It should be noted that the B&R venturesare not a China-dominated thrust butintegrated within the plans of each nationwhile also being integrated within a widerpicture. Thus, working with developmentpartners and with multinational Institutionpartners the Peoples Republic of China

‘The Belt & Road project willrevolutionize global trade’Xiong Meng, Executive Vice Chairman, China Federation of Industrial Economics, China

Vladimir Stavnuk, Head, State Financial Institution for Innovation, Ukraine, welcoming participantsXiong Meng, Executive Vice Chairman, China Federation of Industrial Economics

Henry Shterenberg, CEO, Global Transformation Platform,welcoming participants

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Ribbon Cutting – part one

guides infrastructure connectivity to pro -mote development. Thus ought to lead toaccelerated economic growth and povertyreduction, with, perhaps, the Ukraine beinga central focus.

Modern China’s development

During the last two decades of the 20th cen -tury China’s economic reforms spurredimpressive rates of economic growth. Inorder to continue along the path of con ver -gence with the world’s advanced economies,China’s manufacturing sector must learnhow to deploy R&D resources effectively so

that, over the long-term, China’s enhancedeconomic performance will be throughinnovation and new technologies, andeventually being a leading contributor tothe world’s stock of industrial knowledge.This is a dominant thrust of Made in China2025. This theme of boosting research andcommercialization was promoted officiallyby Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in May 2015.It was a theme mentioned often during themeeting, as an aspirational target that aidsinnovation direction through offering betteraligned financial support. And SundeepWaslekar, President, Strategic ForesightGroup, India noted that China had creatednovel FinTech and a massive use of its

Ribbon Cutting – part two

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Internet for trade and personal consump tion,and he wondered ‘if China might create anew global rule upon transparency?’ Here perhaps was a hint of the power ofBlockchain technology that many delegatessaid they were now using to enforce trans -parency. This boom is noted as China hasbecome the biggest market for e-commerce,mobile payments and importantly for itsgrowing economy, industrial robots; withover 800 million internet users with activesupport from their Internet giants: Baidu,Tencent, and Alibaba.

Fundamentally, within its government’sFive-year plans as well as the ‘Made inChina 2025’ plan, China has stressed theimportance of basic research in becoming

a manufacturing superpower. Thus, linkingscience, technology and innovation coherentlywill permit China to develop software as aservice (SaaS), or a platform as a service(PaaS), or even the digitally managed carof the future will create mobility as aservice (MaaS). Such aspects were notedby Ukrainian delegates who promoted theirnation’s high quality of technical prowess,even in software and IT.

Sergiy Savchuk, Head, State Agency onEnergy Efficiency and Energy Saving ofUkraine suggested that bankers, VCs, andinnovators should support key technolo giesin cross-border initiatives. He noted thatthe Ukraine will be strongly committed torenewables as its energy source. And ZhiPeng, President, Tsinghua Asset Manage -ment Group, China noted that ‘China is theworld’s new engine of sustainable growth,’so would offer a good exchange platform forthe renewable industries of the Ukraine.

‘China is the world’s new engine of sustainable growth’ Zhi Peng, President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China

Pat Cox, President, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe,Switzerland; former President of the European Parliament

Zhi Peng, President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China

Zhang Jianwei, Vice Chairman, Sinotrans, China Shen Andong, Vice Chairman, Beijing Automotive Group, China

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Other delegates noted that while theUkraine presently has a low-wage economyit wishes to change quickly into a well-paideducated workforce. For instance it wasnoted that its IT sector had US$ 4B revenuefrom an IT industry growing at 35% perannum.

AI as a subject cropped up in several dis -cus sions, yet many warned that the mainlesson of thirty-five years of AI research isthat the hard problems (for humans) are easyto solve and conversely the easy problemsare hard. The mental abilities of a four-year-old that we take for granted in recognizinga face, lifting a pencil, walking across aroom, answering a question are in factsome of the hardest engineering problemsever conceived. As the new generation ofintelligent devices appear, it will be thestock analysts, librarians, and petro chemicalengineers (ie relatively mundane decisionmakers) who are in danger of being replacedby machines. Machines with intricatemechanical abilities will be conceived toaid ‘weak’ human abilities but will not bedeeply intelligent, though they may seemso: there will be a continuing market forsensitive human care.

Last year, China’s announced an ambitiousscheme for the country to become a worldleader in artificial intelligence (AI) tech no -logy by 2030. The Chinese State Council,chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, detailed aseries of intended milestones in AI researchand development in its ‘New GenerationArtificial Intelligence Development Plan’with the aim that Chinese AI will haveapplications in fields as varied as medicine,manufacturing and the military. These AIambitions are not surprising as ‘Innovation’has been a favorite buzzword of China’sleadership for several years. However, inno -vation is not restricted to one nation alone– as we noted the export of aero-spacetechnology from Ukraine to China.

Meeting co-chair Liu Changle, Chairman, Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings

Speakers of the Opening Plenary

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International trade and its ‘war’

A commentator reflecting on the US-Chinatrade situation noted ‘it seems China isplaying chess while the US plays checkers’.But the reality is not a game. It affects manyfirms and tiers within supply chains – notonly in the US and China directly, but in allnations as globalization is a global pheno -menon. On one of the plenary panels,Zhang Jianwei, Vice Chairman, Sinotranssuggested we should deflate the situationand use ‘dispute’, rather than ‘conflict’ andcertainly not ‘trade war’. He is well-versedto make such a suggestion has his firmthough state-owned is the largest logisticscompany of China.

Some years ago the IMF had concluded theworld growth was on a rebound, up from

the dire days after the 2007 financial crash– and moreover, most economies weregrowing in synchronization. But the detailedeconomic indicators, closely watched bymanagers, regulators, investors – as wellas economic advisors - remained flat. Andnow the US-led Trade Dispute – initiallybetween the US and China, which is alsospilling into global trade – is slowing eco -nomies world-wide and altering the stanceof the IMF briefings.

Further, and quietly, the US Treasury rate wasraised by the FED with little fanfare. Thefinancial markets had expected this and thusit was uneventful news. It had been noted forfew years many small events have combinedto create a strong dollar, apparent strong USgrowth, high debt loads and riskier corpo ratebonds. The economists simply said it was‘devilishly hard to diagnose, let alone to fix,even for the people whose job was to do justthat’. Although contrarians note that if oneseparates out the California economy fromthat of the whole of the US the latter looksmediocre at best, with GDP growth similarto that of Austria. California, unlike the USAdministration in Washington, is seen to standfor innovation, entrepre neur ship and freetrade as well as aiming for a carbon neutralstate with zero emissions by 2045.

During the welcome reception

Sundeep Waslekar, President, Strategic Foresight Group, India

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Not perhaps surprisingly, Jack Ma, who issoon to retire from leading Alibaba, has saidhis promise to create a million jobs in theUS by 2020 will now fail. His US-targetedpromise was not to create direct employ -ment, but to stimulate entrepreneurs toemploy more people, to increase tradeflows and lift the economies. Given thenew wide-spread trade sanctions theseentrepreneurs will think hard about theirtrade routes, and may not create newproducts at all. He has suggested that if thedispute turns into a ‘war’ its effects will haveramifications on trade for 40 years or more.

Originally Mr Ma suggested that the UStrade deficit hasn’t affected the Americaneconomy, noting at the time, unemploy ment

was at 4.1%. Thus ‘dollars earned from tradesurpluses in China have been recycled tofinance American borrowing, keeping USinterest rates low.’ This allowed the US tobecome a pre-eminent technology leader,while China maintained the social contractbetween the communist party and its peopleincreasing its per capita GDP. Mr Ma mused‘Chinese citizens now have the wealth andincome to pursue discretionary spending. Iwonder if America going to forfeit thisopportunity.’

Chinese investment into Europe

This is a mixed story, with several diffe ren -ces across the region. Overall, Chinese FDI

Sergiy Nizhynskyi, Director, Secretariat of the Cabinet ofMinisters of Ukraine, speaking during the opening dinner

Andrew Chakhoyan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SNC, The Netherlands, chairing a panel on social impact investing

Closing Plenary – What’s Next for Chinese Firms

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into Europe grew by 76 percent in 2017thanks mainly to ChemChina’s record $43billion takeover of the Swiss agri-businesscompany Syngenta. Without that deal,Chinese FDI into Europe would have fallenby 22 percent, to $38 billion.

There are already several Chinese invest -ment projects operating in the Ukraine –in solar power plants, deepening of ports,new metro lines, and highway construction– many in fact tied in with the needs of theBelt and Road initiative, though promotedthrough private Chinese firms. They supportthe Ukraine governments’ wish to focus oninfrastructure development (includingeducation) as well as trade facilitation.

Conclusion

Business leaders globally continue to bedisturbed by trade and political uncertaintyalthough they understand the banking sectoroverall is now much stronger than it was in2007 – they don’t expect a new global crash.Bankers say however they have two greattasks ahead – one is underway as theyincrease their levels of automation ofsimple tasks so as to be more efficient andtransparent while including strong crypto -graphic measures against digital attacks.The other is to better educate their clientsas the bankers who have very strong digitalawareness and capacity see their clients asweak in financial planning and under-staffedin cyber-security.

Thought leaders are convinced thatincreasing protectionism leads to nationalinefficiencies when compared to a globalizedapproach. National populism leads to short-term gratification of the population andinexorably to a creeping lack of long-termplanning (the lack of business investment isa case to note). Further, within the ‘tradewars’, it is very difficult to rearrange supplychains as they depend not only on physicalinfrastructures and digitization, and theydepend importantly upon trust that has

‘China has arrived at its new normal ofslower but highly sustainable economicgrowth. As China is Europe’s naturalpartner – we need more interaction anddialogue between China and Europe’Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament

Anson Chan, Chairman, Bonds Group of Companies, Hong Kong During the opening dinner

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taken years to build. A new supply chaincan be created by contracts and may worksmoothly until some error occurs – thenthe long-term bonding between partiesbuilt on trust would come into play as allpull together to solve the problems. Oncetrust is broken, trade becomes local, andglobalized efficiencies ignored.

The time is ripe for an invigoration ofglobalized trade and the renewal of tradeaccords that don’t annul long-term bene -fits, but which might be recast to be moreequable. The 2018 Horasis China meeting

in Kyiv, Ukraine illustrated how decisivegovernment leads could boost the econo -mies of both China and the Ukraine, andperhaps create in the Ukraine a Europeanpowerhouse. This was a point emphasizedby Pat Cox, former President of theEuropean Parliament noting the newsocio-economic environment for Chinaand Europe: ‘China has arrived at its newnormal of slower but highly sustainableeconomic growth. As China is Europe’snatural partner – we need more inter actionand dialogue between China and Europe.’

It is with gratitude that I thank HenryShterenberg, Chief Executive Officer,Global Transformation Platform andDmitriy Belousov, Founder, PlayUkraine, for having had the foresight andcommitment to partner with Horasis tomake the 2018 Horasis China Meetingsuch a great success. It is our hope that theHorasis China Meeting will continue to serveas an important platform for stimu la tingthought and creative solutions. Horasislooks forward to welcoming you back to nextyear’s edition of the Horasis China Meeting.

Chinese anthem, during the welcome reception

Dmitriy Belousov, Frank-Ju� rgen Richter, Henry Shterenberg

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SummaryBy IE Business School

As a leading European higher educationalinstitution located in Madrid and withdelegations in 28 countries IE is honored tobe the learning partner of Horasis ChinaMeeting 2018 hosted in Kyiv, Ukraine.With recent expansion in China now IE isactively working to develop relations withChinese government, firms and society atlarge through its two offices in Shanghai andBeijing. With programs in cities that includeMadrid, Segovia, Cape Town, San Francisco,

Los Angeles, Providence, Sao Paulo, Singa -pore, Beijing and Shanghai, IE has a networkof over 60,000 alumni with a markedlyinternational profile who work and live in165 countries looking further to increasethe number of Chinese professionals.

IE deeply relates to the importance ofbuilding strong multilateral relationsthrough every year educating a cohort ofincredibly talented students giving its bestto shape leaders with global vision, anentrepreneurial mindset and a humanisticapproach to drive innovation and change inorganizations and drive economies for ward.In its turn through collaboration with over120 top global institutions, which alsoinclude Chinese Universities among whichCEIBS, Tsinghua, Beijing Uni ver sity,Renmin, Xian University and ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong. IE is striving toprovide the new generation of professio nalswith the best experience from the world.

Through a learning environment wheretechnologies and diversity play a key roleand with programs in fields that includebusiness administration, law, finance, inter -national relations, architecture, big data andtechnology, communication and media, andhuman behaviour IE’s 500 professors shape

Borja Gonzalez del Regueral, Vice Dean, IE School of HumanSciences and Technology, Spain

Participants listen to the National Anthem of Ukraine

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future leaders from 128 countries, gene ra -ting knowledge and undertaking researchprojects with social impact.

This report has been compiled in a joint effortby IE Alumni Haowei Gao, Yawen Zhang, Yi Zhang, Long Chen, Vlada Vasylieva,Lyudmila Ischenko, Sufiyan Javeed Sait and Tetyana Kretova. Supported by theGovern ment of Ukraine, the HorasisChina Meeting was a highly inspirationaland visionary series of plenary sessions,briefing breakfasts, with renowned leadersfrom China, Ukraine and the world thatbrought to us a number of key ideas on thefuture of China and opportunities for jointgrowth between Ukraine and China.

The Horasis China meeting hosted inUkraine represented a unique opportunityof exploring not only the growing impact ofChina on the world in particular throughthe ambitious Belt and Road initiativeimpacting 65 countries, however, also theprospects of intensifying collaboration be -tween Ukraine and China. In his welcomenote, Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman,Horasis, Switzerland, expressed hisgratitude to Ukrainian government for thesupport of the event and confidence that itwill nurture new opportunities. In his turn

Liu Jun, Economic and Com mercialCounselor, Chinese Embassy in Ukraine,China, stated that Ukraine and China alreadyenjoy stable collaboration, however, thereare more opportunities to grow in parti -cular due to the fantastic geographicalposition of Ukraine making it unique interms of Belt and Road initiative. Vladimir Stavnuk, Head, State FinancialInstitution for Inno vation, Ukraine, empha -sised the openness of Ukraine to collaboratewith China insuring all the required mecha -nisms. Throughout two days the sessions ofthe Horasis China meeting addressed theopportunities existing in each of the marketsand how by joining forces the capital andknow-how of China can find in Ukraine itscore base in Europe building on strongengineering capabilities of the country andits central European geo graphi cal location toadvance trade relations with Western world.Through conversations Horasis depictednumerous similarities between Ukraine andChina in their focus of transforming froma source base or a production base to thecountries of origin of value added productsand services. In this transformation alongthe capital needs the role of human capitale.g. educated work force has a funda men talrole to ensure the availability of the trainedtalent along the Belt and Road.

Liu Jun, Economic and Commercial Counselor, Chinese Embassy in Ukraine

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Debate about China’s Investment climate

The impact of Belt and Road on the world

The Opening Plenary: China and WorldEconomic Outlook hosted by James Brooke,Editor-in-Chief, Ukraine Business News,Ukraine centered on the challenges arisingin China as one of the largest economies ofthe world. The plenary argued the duringlast decade the concerns about China have

been quite standard for emerging economy,however the government reforms andmarket adjustments helped the country tonavigate through the crisis. ‘The Chineseeconomy despite of external shocks is stillin a very good shape. Innovation has ledChina on the right path of rebalancing theeconomy. China should be judged by howthe economy has fared during the last 13years not by newspaper headlines. China’sGDP today is $8400 and in many ways thisis really just the beginning of our growth,’said Harry Hui, Founder and ManagingPartner, ClearVue Partners, China.

Sundeep Waslekar, President, StrategicForesight Group, India, believed ‘thequestion is whether China will promotethe cooperation between the investingcountries.’ since according to him ‘China isplaying on both tables – old and new eco -nomy.’ Zhang Jianwei, Vice Chairman,Sinotrans, China, ‘We started a new area of

‘I would like to emphasize the open nessof Ukraine to collaborate with Chinainsuring all the required mechanisms’Vladimir Stavnuk, Head, State Financial Institution for Innovation, Ukraine

‘The Chinese economy despite of externalshocks is still in a very good shape.Innovation has led China on the rightpath of rebalancing the economy’ Harry Hui, Founder and Managing Partner,ClearVue Partners, China

Harry Hui, Founder and Managing Partner, ClearVue Partners,China, making a point during the opening plenary

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Guo Shanqi, Founder, Consenomics, China Members of the CCPIT-delegation

reform of opening up our country. We arethe second largest economy in the world.Forty years of growth have posed problems.Success has not come easily but problemsshould not be ignored either. And next fiveto six years will still be the years of stronggrowth with economic dividends.’ Mr. Zhangalso suggested that focus on streamliningindustrial structure and attention to en viron -ment would be the key topics for China toaddress in the coming years. Before stronglygoing into innovation these problems needto be addressed to ensure strong economicgrowth and for this the reform needs tocontinue as well as the opening up of thecountry removing the obstacles, learningfrom other countries, especially from thosewho did better than China. ‘We need tomaintain the spirit of learning to exist withcountries together in harmony. I prefer touse the word conflict rather than Trade War.Ever since there has been trade there hasbeen conflict. That’s normal. I believe ifyou look into the market and the globaleconomic trade disputes never create awinner. I hope that China and the USA willfind solutions to bring social developmentand benefit to the people. Since otherwiseit will bring a lot of un cer tain ties to theeconomy. Our door is open.’

Shen Andong, Vice Chairman, BeijingAutomotive Group, China, empha sised theimportance of resolving current economicconflict, ‘Since March we have felt theresult of the dispute between China and theU.S. Trade frictions have negative impacton the global economy. We are a carmanufacturer and we feel the impact is huge.’Borja Gonzalez del Regueral, ViceDean, IE School of Human Sciences andTechnology, Spain, stated that ‘Europe andChina need to intensisfy their cooperation.Still, Europe wants to base judgements onlegislation and binding frameworks whilethe Chinese approach is more pragmatic.China and Europe are facing the sameproblem of aging population, which iseven more critical from the point of viewof having people who have old set of skillsin the dynamically developing economiesdriven by technology. This is raising tensionbetween countries and within countries aswell since the employment structure is

‘I hope that China and the USA will find solutions to bring socialdevelopment and benefit to the people.And I hope the current trade conflictwill be solved rather sooner than later’Zhang Jianwei, Vice Chairman, Sinotrans, China

Taras Demkura, Vice-President, ICC Ukraine, speaking with participants Hongyu Li, Founder, Sinoglade International

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changing. There are several significant eventsin spring 2019. We have to see what wouldhappen after the European elections andhow after Brexit the European and Chinarelations will change.’

Despite the dynamic economic relationsbetween China and its global partners, theknowledge gaps about economy, society,culture remain large. With China’s growinginfluence on the global stage, the session onHow the World Sees China, and How ChinaSees the World chaired by Pieter Perrett,Professor, University of Applied SciencesNorthwestern Switzerland, Switzerlandexplored the changing domestic and inter-national perceptions of China. CatherineQi, Co-founder, xnw.com, China, drewattention to the significant contribution ofChina to global economic growth ‘averageGDP growth of 9.5% annually for 8 years,trade growth 45% than last year.’ Based onthat David Morris, Chief Representa tive,Pacific Islands Forum, China, continued that

the West fears that China will have moregeopolitics power ‘China’s economy isholding the world’s economy. We want totrade, we want to help the world. And yetNew York times is calling Chinese “aliens”,which could be mainly due to the fact thatChinese companies are not engaging enoughin the world market. Alex Kramarchuk,President, Paradigm Alternative Invest -ments, USA, argued that modern China isstill a closed society and going forward it iskey ‘to open the country and show theworld that they can manage correctly.’Stefano Cavalleri, Co-founder, Rainkay,China, mentioned that in Canada there is asignificant inflow of money from China intoreal estate causing the rise of housing pricesnegatively perceived by local population,however ‘Chinese buyers don’t care muchabout the negative perception by society.’In contrast, weaker economies like Italy,Portugal, especially those small andmedium sized enterprise according toParvis Hanson, Founder of Manor Groupin Switzerland, Switzerland after 2008 crisishold a more positive view of China looking‘to catch all investment they can get fromforeign countries to diversify the riskglobally.’ Metin Guvener, Chairman,Triangle Group, United Kingdom, con clu -ded by stating that, despite the dynamic

‘Trade frictions have negative impact onthe global economy.We are a car manu -facturer and we feel the impact is huge.We need to solve the current conflict’Shen Andong,Vice Chairman, Beijing Automotive Group, China

Pieter Perrett, Professor, University of Applied SciencesNorthwestern Switzerland

Catherine Qi, Co-founder, xnw.com, China Tsutomu Ishiai, London Bureau Chief andEuropean Editor, The Asahi Shimbun

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economic relations between China and itsglobal partners, the knowledge gaps abouteconomy, society, culture remain large.

The globally growing influence of Chinaand the tensions that arise with that werefurther explored at the session onPerceiving China’s Evolving Geopoliticsled by Florence Biot, Co-Founder andExecutive Director, Asia Centre, France.Oleksandr Savchenko, the founder andCEO of International Institute of Busi ness,Ukraine, shared the three pillars of China’scurrent economy ‘the surplus of trade, biginvestment, and the united work forceabroad,’ giving a less optimistic forecast ofChina growth ‘China won’t surpass USA in10 years. Their GDP growth is declining.’Philippe Monnier, Member of theBoard, WayRey, Switzerland, continuedthat ‘Nowadays, European countries trustmore China than the United States,’ belie -ving the launch of Belt and Road reallyshows the growth of leadership of China.Tsutomu Ishiai, London Bureau Chief andEuropean editor, Asahi Shimbun, UnitedKingdom, provided interesting insightsfrom Asian view ‘There are two importantpillars for Japan now. The first one is thesecurity alliance with the USA, and theother one is a friendly relationship with

China.’ He stated that the economic relationbetween China and Japan is closer thanbefore. Ilya Ponomarev, Founder, TridentAcquisitions, USA, emphasized the greatopportunities for China in Ukraine statingthat the economy would be welcominginvestments in different industries directlyfrom private sector rather than through thegovernment ‘A lot of investment in LatinAmerica is unreasonable, China should putmore investment in Ukraine.’ SergeyMillian, the Chairman of Millian Group,USA, added that Ukraine was one of thetarget countries of Belt and Road project.‘Ukraine will benefit not only from capital,but also from labor, commodities and tech -

Sergey Millian, Chairman, Millian Group, China

Florence Biot, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Asia Centre, France

David Morris, Chief Representative, Pacific Islands Forum, China

Philippe Monnier, Member of the Board, WayRay, Switzerland

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nology.’ Olivier Vedrine, Political scientistand journalist, Ukraine mentioned that rightnow ‘Ukraine has become one importantpart of connecting China and western world.’

The collaboration and the growing leader -ship of China has been further addressedduring the China – The Next Engine ofGrowth in the World’s Economy? sessionhosted by Charles Tang, Chairman, Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce & Industry,Brazil, who opened conversation with apositive statement on Chinese influence,‘Transformation in leadership is happeningon daily basis. China has developed a newsystem of international relations. It sends

its business people all over the world, whichis called Colonial master by BBC. But Chinadoes not seek dominance in any region orover any people. We want to do businessnot war. What China did in Africa, is togain markets, and promote export. EightAfrican countries develop fast withChina’s in vest ment. China wants friendsand allies. We attend the neutral needs ofthe countries.’ Further on the panelistsspoke about Belt and Road, the nationalstrategy of China, and how it is beingmisunderstood by some leading countriesin the world. ‘China does not need todominate the world, it is just changing therules and the whole system. China iscooperating in a totally different way.’ saidRafael Cascales, President, SpanishAssociation of Foreign Trade Professionals,Spain. Jacques Tourel, Chairman, WorldTrade Centre Warsaw, Poland, and EbruYarikkaya, Managing Partner, ALYSCapital Partners, Turkey, agreed andcontinued, ‘Chinese companies are veryacquisitive and respect local culture.’Olha Stoliarchuk, Co-Founder, Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance, Ukraine, em pha sisedthat ‘Chinese companies are willing toinvest and to explore. Companies likeXiaomi are not only selling products, theyare creating trends.’ Zheng Fei, Founder

Charles Tang, Chairman, Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Brazil

Ebru Yarikkaya, Managing Partner, ALYS Capital Partners, Turkey Zheng Fei, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,TaoXin Consulting, China

Jacques Tourel, Chairman, World Trade Centre Warsaw, Poland

22

and Chief Executive Officer, TaoXin Con -sul ting, China, in her turn emphasised thedifferences ‘...the two philosophies ofeastern and western cultures are totallydifferent. Europeans favour more trans -parency.’ Zhang Guodong, Chairman,Shandong Yaohua Tenai Technology Co.,China, added, ‘Cooperation and compe ti -tion are two sides of a coin, but in thebusiness world, all competitions will finallyturn into cooperation, as it is the way tocreate value to the maximum,’ suggestingall tensions of global power repositioning atthe end will find its economically groundedbalance.

The Global Trade session chaired byMatthias Kamp, Correspondent,WirtschaftsWoche, Germany further ex -plored the multipolar relations, the growingtrade deficit between China and the USAas well as precautions regarding acceptingChinese investment. Roberto Dona,Professor, International Business SchoolSuzhou, China, expressed a strong opinionthat with its current politics ‘US is tryingto break Europe.’ Sergiy Nizhynskyi,Director of Strategy Planning, Secretariat ofthe Cabinet Ministry, Ukraine, expressedhis belief that ‘Ukraine can be the middleman between the two blocks,’ referring to

the USA and China. He also stated that‘China is not fast. They have strategydeveloped for 150 years!’ referring to theChinese vision of where the countrywould like to be in 150 years. Further onMaxim Bakhmatov, Managing Partner,Unit City, Ukraine, pointed out the im por -tance of economic reasoning in businessrelations over political preferences ‘FromUkraine perspective having a request fromBangladesh and China, we choose the onethat pays more,’ in a way reflecting thepragmatism of economic relationships.While Raed Al-Awasa, President, OilDynamics, UAE offset economic oppor tu -nism with statement that ‘Protectionism

Parvis Hanson, Founder, Manor Group, Switzerland

Olivier Vedrine, Political Scientist and Journalist, UkraineRoberto Dona, Professor, International Business School Suzhou, China

Rafael Cascales, President, Spanish Association of Foreign Trade Professionals, Spain

23

happens all over the world. US helpedEurope to build more relations with Ukraine.So we hope that more agreements willcome out.’ Phil Ren, President, HongKong United Resources Group, China,summarized the discussion by stating thathe remains optimistic about finding a wayfor China in its trade dispute with the USA.

China is shifting from an investment drivendevelopment strategy to one that is morepeople-centred. Chaired by AlexanderWan, Former Senior Advisor, China DailyAsia Pacific, Hong Kong SAR the PlenarySession on China’s New Openness looked

at China’s long-term plans, its outwardand inward investment opportunities and itsFuture New Normal. Pat Cox, President,Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe,Switzerland; former President of theEuropean Parliament, ‘Opening up ofChina has been one of the most dynamicand accelerated examples in human historyof how many people shifted to prosperity.Now focus on tech nology is a natural shift.The impressive thing about China today isthe investment into R&D. With the slow -down of China it needs to find a consump -tion platform outside to sustain the economiclevel, hence, it is inevitable that the countryis opening up. There are other examples inthe world of opening up the economy andChina needs to find what would work for it.’Anson Chan, Chairman, Bonds Group ofCompanies, Hong Kong SAR, ‘China is nowfaced with what is well known in Ukraine,the unwanted war. China might not be inthe shooting war but we are in the trade warand I do not see an easy resolution as this isabout making concessions on state ledcapita lism. Hence, it will become moretense. That means that Chinese factoriesmight need to shift their production toother countries and Ukraine might be agood platform. Hence, this is the best timeto be attracting Chinese manufacturers to

Alexander Wan, Former Senior Advisor, China Daily Asia Pacific,Hong Kong SAR

Phil Ren, President, Hong Kong United Resources Group, China,making a point during a dialogue session

Metin Guvener, Chairman, Triangle Group, United Kingdom

Olha Stoliarchuk, Co-Founder, Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance, Ukraine

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the country.’ Mr. Wan suggested to openup bilaterally by waving visa policy as thiswould enable more Chinese to come toUkraine. Vít Jedlicka, President,Liberland, ‘Three and a half years ago westarted building a new country Liberland inEurope. It only has half a million people andis build on the values of endorsing freedomand taking care of its citizens. Crypto -curren cies and blockchain technologiesplay an impor tant role. This brings a lot oftransparency. In China there are restrictionsin terms of monetary exchange and Liberlandbecame the middleman. It was Hong Kongthat inspired Liberland. And the Chinamiracle I believe is inspired by Hong Kong’.Zhang Xiaodong, Chair man, WinhopesInternational Group, China, ‘After the yearsof opening up Chinese people are now goingglobal, we are em bracing globalization. We have made a lot progress. For the last10 years we are pro moting collaborationbetween China and EU, however, there isstill a lot to be done in the area from allperspectives. And there is a lot to learn, forexample, today we are advising our govern -ment of the villages to come to Europe tostudy how the villages are operating. Howto benefit our people will be the question ofthe future. China becomes a people-centriccountry. I hope this is seen by other

countries.’ Feng Jiacheng, Chairman,Guandgong Hunational Investment Group,China, ‘China is working a lot in the area ofR&D, Intellectual protection, technologicaldevelopment. In terms of technologicalinnovation and development China is opento have collaboration in this area with com -panies from other countries. And we canmutually benefit from this.’ Roger King,Founder and Chairman, ODS Holdings Inc.,Hong Kong SAR, ‘China has been veryopen especially for us living in Hong Kong.We never had a feeling that China has notbeen open to us. Middle class for a longtime could not afford to buy products from

Vít Jedlicka, President, Liberland

Olivier Vedrine, Political Scientist and Journalist, UkraineFeng Jiacheng, General Manager, GuangdongHunational Investment Industrial Co., one of the meeting co-chairs

Zhang Xiaodong, Chairman, WinhopesInternational Group

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outside. So, if openness means ability to buyproducts from outside, then China couldnot afford this. Japanese in the past wentthrough a similar period.You can even todayquestion whether it is open. Looking forwardthere is a huge middle class coming up andthis is a great opportunity for Chinese andnon-Chinese firms. I believe China is openfor foreign companies to come and sellproducts. And China is interested in techno -logy and specifically they are looking forbranding, hence, they welcome joint ventureswith companies that have brands.’

Chaired by Toomas Danneberg, ViceRector, Estonian Business School, the sessionFostering Regionalism: Competing and

Cooperating explored the challenges andoportunities in regions across EasternEurope and Ukraine for economic growth.Ali Osman Ozdilek, Member of Boardof Directors, GD Holding A.S, Turkey,encouraged ‘to rephrase and rethinkregionalism in the era of digital business.We need a new definition of regionalism.’The discussion centered around key sectorsin Ukraine such as agriculture, and especiallyrenewable energy. ‘Ukraine has brain andgrain,’ said George Iliev, Director,Association of MBAs, United Kingdom,referring to the high potential of thecountry in IT and agriculture industries.Mirjana D. Perko, Chairperson, inCon,Slovenia added ‘The challenge of IT sector inUkraine is to evolve from offering standartIT services for outsourcing to creatinginnovative and more added value solutionsin IT field’. Furtheron Geoff Berlin, Prin -cipal, Ukraine Power Resources, Ukrainebelieved that ‘Wind power sector can bekey for direct foreign investment’ buildingon his company’s success in developing thewind power plant. Anson Chan, Chair -man, Bonds Group and Companies, HongKong SAR, emphasised that Ukraine canhave an important role at global scheme ‘I am sure, Ukraine has the bright future,but it needs more marketing as a country’.

Mirjana D. Perko, Chairperson, inCon, Slovenia

Ali Osman Ozdilek, Member of Board of Directors, GD Holding A.S, Turkey

Jerry Zhang, Chief Executive Officer, Neocomm Broadband, China

Matthias Kamp, Correspondent, WirtschaftsWoche, Germany

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In 2013, when the Belt and Road Initiativewas announced, oberservers related itmostly to traditional infrastructures in -vest ments like railroads, reservoirs, dams,and high-speed rail. ‘However, in recentyears, the digital economy is revolutionizingthe global economy. So, it is rather naturalto add the digital economy component tothe Belt and Road Initiative,’ said LenaMinitch, Managing Director, EurotelCommunication, Czech Republic.According to Vit Goncharuk, Founderand Chief Executive Officer, AugmentedPixels, USA, investors should think aboutsmart infrastructure, that may include 5Gnetworks, satellite towers, smartphone andits related economies. ‘China’s Belt & Roadinitiative is indeed getting stronger by im -proving sea and terrestrial interconnectivityalong the routes,’ stated Wang Lijian,Secretary General, Printing Association ofChina, during the panel Digital Silk Road:Elevating its Reality. ‘How will the DigitalSilk Road boost intermediate nation’stechnological hub growth? What advan ta geswill this give to Chinese entrepreneurs?’asked session chair Luigi Gambardella,President, ChinaEU, Belgium. ‘Big dataplatforms and other high-tech tools to makeall types of projects along the Silk Roadmore efficient’, said Dow Wang, Founder

and Chief Executive Officer, MoSeeker,China. According to Li Zhongtao, ChiefExecutive Officer, Nantong IOTA Techno -logy, China this new digital inclusion willenhance the Belt & Road innovation hubs.Furthermore, according to Winston Qiu,Founder, SubmarineNetworks.com, China,the Digital Silk Road can achieve greentransformation along belt and road countries.

Joint opportunities for China and Ukraine

Ukraine is well positioned to engage withChina to promote innovation jointly in

Wang Lijian, Secretary General, Printing and Printing EquipmentIndustries Association of China

Geoff Berlin, Principal, Ukraine Power Resources, UkraineVit Goncharuk, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Augmented Pixels, USA

Luigi Gambardella, President, ChinaEU, Belgium

27

manufacturing and services. HenryShterenberg, Chief Executive Officer,Global Transformation Platform, Ukraine,as a Chair of the China and Ukraine: JoiningHands for Innovation session led the con -versation about shared interests betweenChina and Ukraine engaging speakers toexpress their opinion on what needs to bedone to facilitate the development of theinnovation ecosystems between nations.Zhen Dengfeng, Deputy Secretary Ge -neral, Construction Industry Sub-Councilof China Council for the Promotion ofInternational Trade (CCPIT), China,expressed their readiness to collaborate withUkraine on joint projects, ‘We are lookingfor opportunities to invest in Ukraine.’

Sergiy Savchuk, Head, State Agency onEnergy Efficiency and Energy Saving ofUkraine, Ukraine, began by saying that‘Ukraine passed the law on private publicpartnership allowing investors to enterinto the projects in particular in energysector to work together with government.International investors can also enter intothe private public partnerships, hence withthe need for investments in energy savingUkraine is open to recieve investments ofChinese investors. We have recieved 1.3billion EUR of investment into renewableenergy since 2013, however, we feel weare just at the start.’ Dmytro Kostyk,Chief Executive Officer, InteractiveRestaurant Technology, Ukraine sharedopportunities of collabora tion in the areaof high tech, AI, ‘We are working withChinese companies to base productionhere. With the lower labour cost and due togoegraphical location Ukraine is a uniquebase for building factories producing theactual machinery in Ukraine not onlydeveloping high tech.’ NicholasTymoshchuk, Chief Executive Officer,UFUTURE Investment Group, Ukrainecontinued, ‘We are investing in educationto develop human capital and talent inUkraine. By doing so we enable industry togrow. We feel this allows us to create value

Sergiy Savchuk, Head, State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine

Nicholas Tymoshchuk, Chief Executive Officer, UFUTURE Investment Group, Ukraine

Ilya Ponomarev, Founder, Trident Acquisitions, USA

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added products not just raw material.Ukraine can be a strong platform forChina’. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary General, GreenDevelopment Foundation, China, stressedon the importance of communicationbetween nations ‘to foster understandingand collaboration between countries’.Further supporting the point MichaelLibus, Founder, Leeloo.Ai, Ukraine,highlighted the importance of mutualtransparancy and trust, ‘Ukraine also hasUnicorns like Grammary, Whatsapp. We are quite advanced in voice recognitiontechnologies. However, for Ukrainiancompanies it is not easy to transform towork in Chinese market as we need to workwith local partners. Distributed ledgercould help to improve transparancy.’Denis Gurak, Member of the Super -visory Board, Innovations DevelopmentPlatform, Ukraine, Commercialization ofdefense and security technologies said, ‘If youtalk to Chinese military they are grateful toUkraine that we have build their militarytechnology. Our main aim should beestablishing regulatory framework to fostertechnology production in Ukraine sincefor China this would be a closer base towork and trade with Europe. Ukraine isthe country of engineers and we should

focus on developing our expertise not onlyin software production but also hardware.This is a unique opportunity for Ukraine.’

Chaired by Henry Shterenberg, ChiefExecutive Officer, Global TransformationPlatform, Ukraine, the plenary on NewDirections for Ukraine and China exploredthe ways Ukraine can become a central hubon China’s New Silk Road. Wang Qian,Co-Founder at ICCAMT, China, stated,‘China build several important initiatives topromote global collaboration, and speci -fically to help Russia, Ukraine and otherEastern European countries to developtheir infrastructure. There is an increasingcollaboration between private and non-

Toomas Danneberg, Vice Rector, Estonian Business School, Estonia

George Iliev, Director, Association of MBAs, United KingdomMichael Libus, Founder, Leeloo.Ai, Ukraine Dmytro Kostyk, Chief Executive Officer, Interactive Restaurant Technology, Ukraine

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commercial sectors on the development inhigh tech area. I would really encourageUkraine to outline the competitiveness ofUkraine and investment opportunitiesversus other markets that compete to workwith China.’ Nikolay Malomuzh, formerHead of the Foreign Intelligence Service ofUkraine emphasised, ‘Countries united intheir economic, financial and social interestswould not have conflicts. Ukraine could beand can be a powerful hub in the world forsteering projects in a number of industries– railroads, space, sea, serving as a digitalsilk road from China to Europe.’

Innovation and transformation into value added economy

During the last 40 years of growth Chinahas been the manufacturing of the worldbuilding on its vast availability of cheaplabour. Ukraine has almost 100% literacyrate with a significant percentage of peopleholding University diplomas. And yet, todayboth countries in their own way are facingthe need for evolving from the source baseto the value-added economies.

China proposes to transform itself into amoderately prosperous society by 2020 anderadicate poverty by promoting innova tion.May Liu, Chairman, May Group Inter -natio nal, China, kicked off the session onUnderstanding China’s Future Plans withthe conversation about business trendssaying that ‘Intercultural understanding isequally problematic for both: for Chinamoving out and for foreign companiesmoving in. China actually wants to achievewin-win balance.’ ‘Many entrepreneursnow have employees from all across globe,this is amazing. Absorbing the global cultureis also important for China. Unless there isa cultural acceptance about the product, it will never be accepted by consumers,’shared Sergey Lysov, Managing Partner,

Joël Ruet, Chairman, TheBridgeTank, France Sundeep Waslekar, President, Strategic Foresight Group and Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary General, GreenDevelopment Foundation

Wang Qian, Co-Founder, ICCAMT, making a point about Chineseinvestments into Ukraine

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2SKYROX, Ukraine, who also believed ionthe increasingly important role of deeptechnology for business. At the same timeFrank Müller, Founder and Chief Exe cu -tive Officer, The Bridge to Luxury, Germany,further reflected that in terms of luxuryindustry China still has a long way to go interms of branding, however, ‘Global village isa just a matter of time. China has the historyof craftsmanship and locally governmentsshould now guide findings to develop China’sown luxury brand.’ Joël Ruet, Chairman,TheBridgeTank, France, believed ‘What isreally important is not numbers, but theknow-how. China has now a more definedinitiative. Before it was providing facilitiesto attract foreign investment and nowupstream attracting talent.’ ‘China offersinternships for foreign talent at presentacross industries: finance, consumer goods ...,’supported Jonathan Zhong, Founder,FutureChina, China. Lulu Zhou, Mana gingDirector, Global Access CSG, USA, saw‘Huge potential for Educational use of AI inChina where parents are fully dedicated toeducation of their kids.’ The session con clu dedthat with its ‘Plan 2025, manu fac tu ring toinnovation’ and good policies of attractinghigh-level talents into China and settlingdown, it is just a matter of time for China tounderstand and to be understood by the world.

Chinese tech groups look for edge in usingArtificial Intelligence (AI) and machinelearning to push into newer fields of AI-enabled hardware and blockchaintechnologies. Moderating the session onCommercialisation of Digital Identities,Vlad Shapiro, Co-Founder, UAV Ventures,USA, invited participants to explore howAI frameworks give Chinese firms a startingadvantage. He shared that ‘Currently, thereare 35 billion digital identities as allconsumers, corporates, and companies ofdigital products can be considered digitalidentities.’ Nadiia Vasylieva, Founder,Digital Transformation Institute, Ukraine,

Vlad Shapiro, Co-Founder, UAV Ventures, USA

Jonathan Zhong, Founder, FutureChina, ChinaOleksandr Savchenko, Founder and CEO,International Institute of Business, Ukraine

May Liu, Chairman, May Group International,about China’s future plans

31

stated that ‘Even though today 73% ofdigital users used mobile phones and thenumber will further increase we cannotsay that mobile users are the owners ofdigital identities. On the other side, wecannot say either the big tech companies are.’Amirsan Roberto, Founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, Wiredin Inc, Australia,mentioned that nowadays, we are trying toprotect our data but sometimes we don’thave a choice. For a Chinese, there is no wayto stop using Wechat. ‘Do we even have achoice of not using the app?’ raised therhetoric question Wei Jing, ManagingDirector, LinkYou, China. Andrey Zupko,CEO of NaomilHire, Ukraine, stated thatusing AI, an HR department can create a

better recruitment system to hire the rightpeople. Based on this statement, it has beenasked how a human can remain human if AIand machine learning is fully developed.While Allen Qu, Founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, Netconcepts China,China, expressed his belief that ‘In futuremany job positions that require juniorknowledge of the industry will be done by machines.’ Oleksiy Rudenko, posed aquestion related to data authenticity, ‘Whereis that dividing line between real and virtualworld? Right now already there is no waywe can tell.’

With the boom in Fintech industry China inparticular had witnessed an exponentiallygrowing number of digital startups. Thesession What’s Next for China’s BoomingFinTech? moderated by Jin Dunhong,Affiliated Researcher, Oxford-Man Insti tuteof Quantitative Finance, United Kingdombrought together fintech entrepreneurs todiscuss the opportunities of blockchain,cryptocurrency, IoT, and other techinnovations. Jade Chen, Founder, Younus,China, drew attention to the fact that nowit is difficult for SMEs to obtain loans asfinancial institutions do not share creditprofiles with each other. ‘By using IoTinvoices and inventories can be tokenized

Allen Qu, Founder, Netconcepts China

Nadiia Vasylieva, Founder, Digital Transformation Institute,Ukraine

Andrey Zupko, Chief Executive Officer,NaomiHire, Ukraine

Jin Dunhong, Affiliated Researcher, Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance

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and exchanged between SMEs, investorsand financial institutions around the world.Thus, SMEs can adopt blockchain techno -logy in their supply chain management, todo business securely and efficiently.’ Oleg Kondrashov, Founder, Encata,Belarus, further stressed on the impor tan ceof transparency brought by technologystating that ‘with blockchain banks actuallyare able to track the use of borrowed funds,which is impossible with the standardsystem.’ Mike McLaughlin, Founder andChief Executive Officer, Infinite Blinker,USA, shared interesting facts about thecurrent situation of Fintech in Ukraine,‘There are 60 Fintech companies with 84%of them launching their own services ofproducts’. He also stressed the key role ofChina ‘Right now there are 27 Fintechunicorns in the world and 9 of them are inChina,’ granting this fact primarily to solidinfrastructure and high market penetra tion.John Feng, Chief Executive Officer,OKCoin, Japan acknowledged the develop -ment of cryptocurrency in China alsostating that with the development of themarket and business there is always moreregulation that will also come to crypto -currency ‘A startup won’t have any legalissue at the beginning. It is when thingsgrow big that government intervenes.’

During the Uplifting Chinese Innovationpanel speakers discussed the innovationprogress in China referring to the rapidundergoing transition of being ‘Made inChina’ to ‘Innovated in China’. In the con -versations led by Stacy Kenworthy,Chief Executive Officer, HellaStorm, USA,Zhang Mei, General Manager, KunmingMerlin Science & Technology Co., men -tioned that ‘For the last 10 years China isnumber one in the world in terms of IP.There are more than 5500 co-workingspaces and accelerators in China. Innovationbecomes the hottest word in the market.’At the same time José Alejandro RegojoBarrón, Member of the Board, BitcoinGold Organization, Spain, noted that on the

Oleksiy Rudenko, Chief Business Development Officer, FF-Group, Ukraine

Oleg Kondrashov, Founder, Encata, BelarusStacy Kenworthy, Chief Executive Officer,HellaStorm, USA

Frank Müller, Founder, The Bridge to Luxury,Germany

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other hand China is restrictive regardinginnovation in certain areas, for example‘there is a trillion-crypto currency businessout there, however trading on ICOs in Chinais banned. And I didn’t find anyone in Chinawho is trying to communicate the actualfinancial improvement to the world’.Aivaras Abromavicius, Chairman,Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy,Ukraine referred to Ukraine as being ‘strongin IT area with a huge pool of talentedpeople but lack of strong leadership andsocial problems that need to be solved.’ Bo Inge Anderson, President, YazakiNorth and Central American, Europe andAfrica, USA, noted the biggest value in that

for Chinese firms would be that ‘Ukraineis well positioned in Europe so Ukraine canhelp China to actively engage in Europe.’Julia Berezovski, Chief Financial Officer,IB Center Inc, USA, stressed that ‘Ukrainehas huge demand in many industries likerenewable energy and agriculture but thereare no providers at all’ referring to theopportunity of changing that with the helpof China. David Li, Co-Founder, MakerCollider, China suggested to expand herplatform connecting small and mediumsized businesses in China to create linksbetween countries.

The Nurturing Entrepreneurship panelchaired by Peter Dickinson, Chief Editor,Business Ukraine Magazine, Ukraine furtheraddressed founding factors to support entre -preneurs in different areas. Roger King,Founder and Chairman of ODS HoldingsInc., Hong Kong SAR, explained the secretformula of Silicon Valley as ‘A lot ofgovernment support and universities likeStanford, many willing to invest VCs andthe mind-set of the people willing to startand take risks.’ Currently Hong Konggovernment is replicating that as the‘Silicon Valley’ of China in a Great BayArea connecting Hong Kong, Macau andsouth province of Mainland. Ren Siyi,

Bo Inge Anderson, President, Yazaki North and Central America,Europe and Africa, USA

Roger King, Founder and Chairman, ODS Holdings Inc., Hong Kong

Lulu Zhou, Managing Director, Global Access CSG, USA

Amirsan Roberto, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,Wiredin Inc, Australia

34

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, TeaPlays, China as a young entrepreneur,shared her experience of easiness instarting up a business in China ‘It took 30 yuan (four euros) and two weeks toregister my startup. Everyday there are over15 600 new com pany registrations. Thereare more than 500 co-woking centers andaccelerators just in Shanghai.’ Ren alsoemphasised the entrepreneurial spirit ofChinese ‘As Chinese first we do it then wefix it.’ Yves Decadt, Chief ExecutiveOfficer. BioLingus, Switzerland, in his turnstated that it is important to build a wellfunctioning infrastructure for long-termsuccess stating that ‘Swiss business systemworks like a swiss watch – all parts worktogether.’ Igor Izraylevych, Chief Exe -cutive Officer and Co-Founder, S-PRO,Ukraine, enthusiastically shared that ‘It is agood moment to start business in Ukrainesince with little competition you can easilygrow to medium company. However, lackof business education makes it difficult toscale up.’ While Ren Siyi, proclaimed that‘Entrepreneuship should not be taught butbe practiced.’

During Chinese e-commerce Expansionsession Timothy Nichol, Dean, Liver poolBusiness School, United Kingdom framed

conversations around the nature of e-commerce in China within the existingplatforms, the variety of business modelsas well as the cross-border operationalissues towards West. It has been said thatfor the last two years the expectations ofChinese cross-border activities has beenlargely exceeded partially due to the de -velopment of e-commerce special tradingzones. Louis Li, Director, EY Digital Capital,China, outlined three fundamentals of e-commerce as the communication infra -structure, logistics and social networkingeco-system, ‘China has amazing, cheap andthe world’s fastest logistics. Delivery is afundamental aspect for pulling e-commerce.

Ren Siyi, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Tea Plays, China

Peter Dickinson, Chief Editor, Business Ukraine Magazine,chairing the panel about entrepreneurship

Igor Izraylevych, Chief Executive Officer, S-PRO, Ukraine

Timothy Nichol, Dean, Liverpool Business School, United Kingdom

35

WeChat creates an eco-system where youcan promote, recommend the product toyour family and friends.’ Bryan Yang, ChiefExecutive Officer, Inspiration Inc., Chinaagreed that e-commerce is a highly com pe -titive industry that will further be dominatedby large market players. Jasper Cao,Founder and Chief Executive Officer,Guangxi Fingers Electronic Commerce Co,China, spoke about the need for continu ousinnovation due to changing customer ex pec -tations, ‘We have a lot a capital investment.We also have 500 people in R&D to updateour software monthly to adapt to consu mersbehaviour.’ Ukraine has experienced arecent increase in e-commerce develop mentdue to the notable improvements in legisla -

tion and communication infrastructure.Nevertheless, there is still a gap in theUkrainian B2C e-commerce sector.Michael Kharenko, Partner, CYFRDFrontech Investments, Ukraine, said,‘Ukrainian B2B e-commerce is in a verygood shape compared to Ukrainian B2B e-commerce.’ Zhang Yuling, Founder andChairman, rgo47, Myanmar, mentionedthe reality of the developing markets wherefor e-commerce to pick up it will take time,‘Even though there is a lot of innovationhappening in developed countries in the de -veloping ones like Myanmar Omnichannelcannot happen. Many of our people do notknow how to buy online and purchasingpower based on our GDP is low.’

Bryan Yang, Chief Executive Officer, Inspiration Inc., China

Plenary Session about China’s New OpennessAlberto Carvalho Neto, Vice President, JEUNE – YoungEntrepreneurs Organization of the European Union, Belgium

Zhang Yuling, Founder and Chairman, rgo47, Myanmar

Louis Li, Director, EY Digital Capital, China

36

Human capital as the basis for dynamic growth

The young of Ukraine and China yearn to be entrepreneurs and to innovate.Deepening double-nation knowledge wouldenhance global understanding and trust.This was one of the topics addressed duringthe Unlocking the Potential of Youth panelchaired by Anastasia Sleptsova, Founderand Chief Executive Officer, Spread Inc.,Ukraine, who opened discussion with aquestion on how to encourage young entre -preneurs and to connect young talents fromdifferent regions. Based on his currentexperience, Alberto Carvalho Neto, VicePresident, JEUNE, Belgium, proposed thatit proved to be a good way to commu ni catethrough regional associations. Buildingorganizations in Europe like ChineseOverseas Association, which has manyyoung talents and inviting each other tovisit and to see the country in person arethe best way to enhance understanding andconnection from both sides. Peggy Tse,Director of Health Impact Fund, USA,explained why big corporations now tend torecruit young people, ‘Mainly because youngpeople enjoy working in a diverse environ -ment and they dare to try new things notonly work for the company but also workfor a better world. These qualities can add

to both economic and social value of thecompany.’ According to Tian Qi, Co-Founder, Beckstone Group, United King -dom, ‘it is important for young people tohave experience of working internationallyto understand the communication style anddiversity. Working locally makes binds to acertain way of working.’ Luc Wei, Co-Founder, Madmonkey, China, spoke aboutthe importance of branding, ‘Brandingnowadays is helping clients to make decision.’He suggested old corporations need torebrand themselves to gain more marketshare, which requires to think out of thebox and for this they need to engage youngpeople.

Tian Qi, Co-Founder, Beckstone Group, United Kingdom

Anastasia Sleptsova, Founder, Spread Inc., UkraineJasper Cao, Founder, Guangxi Fingers ElectronicCommerce Co, China

Yves Decadt, CEO, BioLingus, Switzerland

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Bashir Makhoul, Vice Chancellor, Uni ver -sity for the Creative Arts, United Kingdomchaired the panel on the Developing Multi-cultural Managerial Skills, during whichparticipants defined creativity, trust andcollaboration as the core pillars of runningbusiness in the multicultural environment.Today top institutions worldwide focus ondeveloping multicultural managerial skillswith creativity playing a significant role.Bashir Makhoul shared ‘Today in the UnitedKingdom approximately 92 billion dollarsare generated by creative industries. More -over, creative thinking would stimulate anew approach to the business around theworld.’ Ivan Ogilchyn, ManagingPartner, Octagonal Corporation, USA,reflected on the aspect of trust, ‘Is trust

emotional or rational? Can we run businesswithout trust and respect? Of course not.Strong and long-term partnership should bebuilt on trust.’ ‘When trust is lost, it canbe regained via trusted mentors,’ supportedDonny Huang, Founder and ManagingDirector, 4stones, China, ‘Even todayChina is still learning how to interact withthe world and Western civilizations.’ OlavErmgassen, Founder and ManagingPartner, Ermgassen & Co., UnitedKingdom, stressed that ‘Culture lays verydeep in the personalities of people and thepersonalities of the organizations.’ IrinaTykhomyrova, President, Inter natio nalManagement Institute (MIM-Kyiv),Ukraine, emphasised that ‘Cooperation isalways about advantages at institutionallevel and at people level. At institutionallevel it is about growth and development.At people level cooperation means newinspiration and ideas for business.’Richard Li, Managing Partner, SuccessMark, Hong Kong SAR, stated that ‘Themost important thing here is to establish acommon goal that will bring people together.’

With rapidly changing consumer behaviourin China the panel on Brands and China’sNew Lifestyle moderated by TakashiKawabata, Chief Asia Economist, Uzabase/

Olav Ermgassen, Founder and Managing Partner, Ermgassen & Co.,United Kingdom

Luc Wei, Co-Founder, Madmonkey, China

Donny Huang, Founder and Managing Director,4stones, China

Irina Tykhomyrova, President, InternationalManagement Institute (MIM-Kyiv), Ukraine

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NewsPicks, Japan addressed what it wouldtake for Chinese firms to become globalbrands. One of the main drivers for thesechanges is the economic growth. Thenumber of high-net worth individuals inChina went from some 300 000 people in2008 to 3 million in 2018. According toChristine Cheng, Founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, Lushu Technology, China,‘a dramatic change in the cultural behaviouris associated with the new life-style. Peoplegained more self-accreditation and moreself-confidence‘ ‘Indeed, people tend to save less and spend more,’ said JerryZhang, Chief Executive Officer, NeocommBroadband, China. ‘The new generation isno longer working for money as theirpredecessors. The millennials have greateducation and they have the big brandsalready so now they go for the next step,which is sustainability,’ stated FlorinBaeriswyl, Professor, Shanghai Instituteof Visual Art in China, adding that ‘the oldgeneration in China has been working formoney and wanted to show it. The millen -nials are after individualism.’ Chen Xin,Chief Executive Officer, HeroBakery,Germany, added, ‘New generation is moreflexible, more open-minded. Business isturning more into high-tech. It’s a bigchallenge since technology with the infor -

mation being pushed by AI and computerscience changes not only people behaviourbut their minds.’ Jacky Cheng, Founder,CommNow, China, continued, ‘Peoplenow care more about themselves and areless open. It is driven by AI and computertechnologies.’ In response to that JennieLegary, Chief Marketing Officer, imusify,USA, suggested they apply new marketingapproach, ‘The marketing strategy we haveimplemented is using brand ambassadorsinstead of top influencers.’ ‘It is amazingto see how the older generation in China(60+, 70+ y. o.) is living naturally usingthe new technologies and services,’ sharedMatthias Roebel, Chief Executive Officerand Co-founder, Ming Labs, Germany.Even though the time is changing, and the

Chen Xin, Chief Executive Officer, HeroBakery

Takashi Kawabata, Chief Asia Economist, Uzabase, Japan,chairing a panel of Chinese brands

Ivan Ogilchyn, Managing Partner, Octagonal Corporation, USA

Richard Li, Managing Partner, Success Mark, HongKong

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communication environment is changingfast in China panel members believe it isstill a long journey and a big challenge sinceChinese people are trying to be conser va tivein communication and local companies needto learn how to act in a universal way.

During the session Education along theBelt and Road moderated by Jin Yuxian,Chairman, CIE International EducationGroup, China the panellists addressed arange of issues related to the challenges ofdeveloping the demanded by the markettalent. David Pan, Executive Dean,Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University,China, stated that ‘We see an increasedinterest in studying at our University fromthe countries of the Belt and Road that

includes 65 countries.’ Jackie Wang,Founder and President, China WomenSchool and Future China Society, China,highlighted a different important aspect ofeducation addressed by her, ‘Today we learna lot about being good managers, however,it is also important to learn how to be goodmothers and wives. They can learn tech andskills but they don’t know how to managelife. We teach how to find meaning of life.’Jim Yuan, Co-founder, Joyview Education,China, provides education consulting tothose interested to study abroad noted, ‘It is important to Chinese people as wellto gain an international outlook that comeswith international experience, for examplestudying abroad’. Kai Hu, Founder,EverGreen Academy, China, highlighted theimportance of social and communicationskills and in particular language skills,‘After completing my Bachelor I cameback to China to create change in my ownsmall (in Chinese terms) community bycreating a school of English for kids.Hardy Wang, Chief Executive Officer,Edulinker International Technology andEducation Co., China, shared, ‘We arebuilding the educational Alibaba, whichalong with online courses would also provideconsulting on educational path to candidatesand their parents.’ Edulinker also aims at

Jackie Wang, Founder and President, China Women School and Future China Society

Matthias Roebel, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Ming Labs, Germany

David Pan, Executive Dean, Schwarzman College,Tsinghua University, China

Jin Yuxian, Chairman, CIE International Education Group, China

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providing Chinese schooling outside ofChina with further support in employmentin China. Tetyana Kretova, APACRegional Director of IE University andBusiness School admired the rapid develop -ment of Chinese institutions stating ‘For IEit is key to shape leaders of the future,educate professionals, which are demandedby the market. For this along with innovativebusiness degrees we also offer career focuseddegrees such as Big Data, Cybersecurity,Digital Transformation and work hand inhand with employers. We also believe in alifelong learning and that at differentmoments of our life we need differentopportunities for upgrading our skills.’

Capital Investment to fostereconomic growth

A number of sessions addressed an impor -tant topic of investment opportunities inUkraine and China. Daniel Bilak, ChiefInvestment Advisor to the Prime Minister ofUkraine, chaired the session on Investingin Ukraine offered as an introduction toChinese investors about the country’sinvestment landscape as the government of Ukraine is seeking to attract foreigninvestment. Maria Barabash, President,A7 Capital, Ukraine, said, ‘Ukraine is aresource-rich country, particularly inenergy, and it is a major exporter of naturalgas in the world. It also has a very goodinfrastructure con di tion. For example, it

Tetyana Kretova and Borja Gonzalez del Regueral, both IE University, Spain

Daniel Bilak, Director, UkraineInvest; Chief Investment Advisor to the Prime Minister, Ukraine

Florin Baeriswyl, Professor, Shanghai Institute of Visual Art,China

Sergey Lysov, Managing Partner, 2SKYROX, Ukraine

Hardy Wang, CEO, Edulinker InternationalTechnology and Education Co., China

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has the fourth longest railway system’.Mykhailo Granchak, Managing Director,Dragon Capital, Ukraine, stated that‘Increasing foreign investment andinternational acquisition transactions inUkraine are a good indicator of improvinginvestor confidence. While finance-driveninvestment is still dominant, investment inUkrainian enterprise is becoming popular’.Olga Afanasyeva, Executive Director,Ukrainian Venture Capital and PrivateEquity Association, Ukraine,said, ‘Someforeign in vestors are actively seekingopportunities in Ukraine. IT outsourcinghas grown into a successful industry inUkraine and at the international market’.

Deng Jianhua, Vice General Manager,China Energy Engineering Group, China,in his turn noted that ‘Many Chinesecompanies have realized Ukraine’spotential as part of the Belt and RoadInitia tive and already have plans toincrease their invest ment in this region.’Zhang Xiaodong, Chairman, WinhopesInter national Group, China, continued,‘Ukraine is also an attractive destinationfor logistics companies’.

In a session about Ukrainian Competitive -ness, Brian Bonner, Chief Editor, KyivPost, Ukraine shared economic develop menttrends of Ukraine, ‘Ukraine’s economy isprogressiong but we need to encourage moreforeign direct investment’. According toOleksiy Pavlenko, Director, UkrainianInstitute of the Future, Ukraine, ‘one of thekey issues we observe there is that no oneknows anything about Ukraine in China,except for conflict and the issue of stability.If we can show the country is stable andregulated the Chinese investors will come’.‘Ukraine is the last market of a significantsize to invest in Europe,’ stressed IgorNakonechny, Founder and Chief Exe cu -tive Officer, NanoDuck, Ukraine. ‘Ukraineused to be the Silicon Valley of the SovietUnion – Ukraine has the right mindset to

Jacky Cheng, Founder, CommNow, China

Brian Bonner, Chief Editor, Kyiv Post

Mike McLaughlin, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Infinite Blinker, USA

Kai Hu, Founder, EverGreen Academy, China

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get into this position again.’ reasonedAndrey Kolodyuk, Founder, AVenturesCapital, Ukraine. According to RenoDomenico, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Sterling Business School, USA,Ukraine’s strong education, work ethic andfocussed tech have created strong entre pre -neurial development. Ivan Kryshtopa,Co-founder, Cashless Ukraine, Ukraineencouraged investors to take advantage ofthe opportunity in developing the ‘newcentury economy’ in Ukraine.

The session on Investing in China chairedby Angela Alvarez, Vice Chairman, FairValue Capital (UK) Ltd, United Kingdomfocused on conditions of success for foreigninvestors in China. Chris Tay, Co-founder,LTCV Investments Holdings, China,empha sised that ‘Chinese market is verycompetitive and difficult even for Chinesecompanies.’ Hence, to continue Sally J. Yan,Executive Board Member, Drivetide Capital,Switzerland, suggested before looking atthe Chinese market to reflect ‘What is thearea that you are looking at and what is theChinese behaviour towards it? What stageis your company at?’ Li Hongyu, ChiefExecutive Officer, Sinoglade InternationalConsulting Co, China, suggested the im -portance of ‘first visiting China and seeing

the country for yourself before making anyinvestments as there are a number of mythsconnected to China like Intellectual Propertyprotection.’ Peter Pang, Founder, Chair -man and Managing Partner, IPO PangXingpu, China, believed that ‘Chinese focusa lot more on the brand and message. Youcannot compete in China on price. They arewilling to pay more if the quality and themessage are justified.’ The panel concludedthat there has been growth for four decadesthat has also created some problems. Successhas come relatively easy, but prob lemsshould not be ignored in this ‘enormouscon sum p tion market’.

Chris Tay, Co-founder, LTCV Investments Holdings, China

Peter Pang, Founder, Chairman and Managing Partner, IPO Pang Xingpu, China

Reno Domenico, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sterling Business School, USA

Olga Afanasyeva, Executive Director, Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity

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Forms of investing yielding social benefit canpositively alter the course of an economy.The session on Social Impact Investing led byAndrew Chakhoyan, Founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, SNC, The Netherlands,intended to define social impact investingdebating the prospects of such investmentin Ukraine. The opinions varied fromIaroslav Gregirchak, Deputy BusinessOmbudsman, Business OmbudsmanCouncil, Ukraine believing that ‘Payingsalaries and taxes, and creating jobs isalready a kind of positive social impact.’Alex Bart, Founder & Managing Partner,Empire State Capital Partners, Ukraine, onthe other hand, stating that ‘long-terminvestment without considering social

impact will not lead to stable business’. Theuncertainty of politics is greatly reducingthe desire for entrepreneurs and venturecapitals to invest. ‘Ukraine facing politicaluncertainty in recent years partially explainsthe reason why investors hesitate to enterthe market,’ noted former first DeputyProsecutor General of Ukraine, ‘However,given the global trend of pursuit for socialimpact investing given Ukraine being ableto provide investors with guarantees ofstability, the future is still bright.’ OlgaAleksandrova, Co-Founder and Chair,‘EmbraceMe’ Foundation, UnitedKingdom, believed that ‘social impactbonds can be a good idea’ to increasecertainty and attract investment with socialimpact. While Yulia Rybak, Co-Founder,Ukrainian Agency for Energy Reform,Ukraine, expressed her opinion that itshould be achieved ‘by means of govern -ment to government.’ At the same timeMarcus Brand, Democratic GovernanceAdvisor, UNDP Ukraine, Ukraine high -lighted the importance of professionalism‘Social impact investing should still lookinto the core business and be establishedwith business integrity.’

Chaired by John B. Kidd, Research Fellow,Aston Business School, United Kingdom,

Mykola Golomsha, Former first Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, during an interview

John B. Kidd, Research Fellow, Aston Business School, United Kingdom

Yulia Rybak, Co-Founder, Ukrainian Agency for Energy Reform, Ukraine

Iaroslav Gregirchak, Deputy Business Ombudsman,Business Ombudsman Council, Ukraine

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the Exporting China’s Green Economypanel looked at the hot topic of reducingthe impact of industrial development onenvironment and running green economy.Cui Pijiang, Chairman, China CokingAssociation, China, said that ‘Chinese gover -nment now is paying a lot of attention tothe protection of environment. We notonly changed the environment protectionstandard, but also we have better techno -logy.’ Daniel Aspleaf, Managing Director,CDM Engineering Ukraine, Ukraine, said,‘It is not only about technology. People askme how about using this (technology) toprotect environment while the real questionis can you afford it?’ referring to the factthat often energy needed to tackle wastemay cause an extra high consumption ofelectricity. Svitlana Kolomiyets, Co-founder, ReThink Initiative, Ukraine, statedthat green economy is just a narrow way ofseeing the current situation. A broader wayis to consider the environment in the nextfew decades. ‘Compared to China, Ukraineis doing a modest campaign right now’,however, according to her ‘Small things inthe long run can change a lot.’ Sein-WayTan, Chairman, Green World City, Australia,agreed, ‘In China, we didn’t have wind tech15 years ago and now we are its biggest pro -ducer.’ Roman Zinchenko, Co-founder,

Greencubator, Ukraine, continued, ‘We aretrying to learn from China and not only inthe renewable energy sector.’

Venture Capital (VC) as driver of eco -nomic development and global growth isgetting more importance, in China andelsewhere. During the Boosting VentureCapi tal Deployment session headed by Ji Bo, Assistant Dean, Cheung KongGraduate School of Business, China,panellists addressed the hidden danger ofVC trend in China ‘With the surplus ofmoney, investments are done into popularindustries, which are on the hype, forexample blockchain,’ indicated SergeySkabelkin, Co-founder, Ukraine Venture

Liu Hongchuan, Partner, Broad & Bright, on China’s global trade

Angela Alvarez, Vice Chairman, Fair Value Capital (UK) Ltd, United Kingdom

Svitlana Kolomiyets, Co-founder, ReThink Initiative, Ukraine

Alex Bart, Founder & Managing Partner, Empire State Capital Partners, Ukraine

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Hub, Ukraine. Liu Hongchuan, Partner,Broad & Bright, China, said that suchunresearched investments done based onthe ‘bet on’ method led to stagnation inthe area and many immature VC funds willget squeezed out of the market. Stan Fung,Managing Director, FarSight Ventures, USA,stated that ‘Regional VC investors missglobal trends.’ And David Yue, ManagingPartner, Baroque Capital, China, believedthat ‘Decentralized blockchain is the future.’Speakers agreed government plays a crucialrole in market development. ‘The govern -ment control is a must’ said Sun Ho,Chairman, Chang Cheng Insurance Brokers,China suggesting Chinese government should

have more influence on the market viaGovernment Guiding Fund incentivisingdifferent industries. Agreeing with thatAlexander Kershteyn, Managing Partner,Swanlake Capital, Belarus, shared that ‘inBelarus 5 years ago, the government evendidn’t know what a VC was. Now we aregrowing.’

China’s foreign reserves have led to a hugeoutflow of Chinese overseas investments.The Unleashing Chinese Firms’ Global In -vestments session focused on the strategies,key sectors and countries for Chinese capital.Session chair Paul McNeill, ManagingPartner, Resonance, opened by asking

Sein-Way Tan, Chairman, Green World City, Australia, speaking about China’s Green Economy

Stan Fung, Managing Director, FarSight Ventures, USA, about China’s VC ecosystem

Paul McNeill, Managing Partner, Resonance, China

David Yue, Managing Partner, Baroque Capital,China, making a point about eduction

Sun Ho, Chairman, Chang Cheng Insurance Brokers

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participants which new strategies can helpChinese firms to go global more success -fully. According to Zhi Peng, President,Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China‘Chinese investors focus on Europe and theUSA to invest in high-tech start-ups.Western Europe is where many tech start-ups head to get investment. This is alsowhere Chinese VCs see favourableregulation.’ Liu Chenchao, Founder andChief Operation Officer, DH Bioinvest,China highlighted that after the investmentspree resulted in the purchase of footballclubs and other assets, Chinese VCs areusing more the global guidance presentedby the Chinese government. Ge Ming,Chairman of the Supervisory Board, ChinaM&A Associa tion, China, concluded that‘Money isn’t a problem. But really goodprojects are difficult to find’. The discussionalso focused on the advantages of Ukrainefor FDI due to the profit tax waver for theinvestment in renewable energy andhighest tariffs in solar energy. It has beensaid that inexistent stock exchange/orunder de ve loped VC market and highcorporate interest rates will give ChineseVCs a competitive advantage in manysectors. In response to the concern from HeZhidong, Chairman, Bridge Group, Chinaabout the safety of investment in Ukraine

given the conflict in the East SergeyPetrenko, Founder and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Terminal42, Ukraine stated thatthe majority of FDI happens in theWestern Part of the country, roughly 1000km away from the battlefields in the EasternUkraine.

‘Ukraine has all elements for Chinesecompanies not only to produce here butto share their technology and experience’Henry Shterenberg, Chief Executive Officer, Global Transformation Platform, Ukraine

Michael Stopford, Managing Director, Oxford Analytica, United Kingdom

Ji Bo, Assistant Dean, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business,China

Olga Aleksandrova, Co-Founder and Chair,EmbraceMe Foundation, United Kingdom

He Zhidong, Chairman, Bridge Group, China

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Conclusion

The closing plenary What’s Next for ChineseFirms? summed up the discussions of twodays of Horasis. Chaired by MichaelStopford, Managing Director, OxfordAnalytica, United Kingdom, panellistsdebated how Chinese firms should drivethe next wave of globalization. Accordingto Henry Shterenberg, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Global Transformation Platform,Ukraine, ‘China is eager to build that oneway to Europe and Ukraine is right on themiddle of it. Ukraine has all elements forChinese companies not only to producehere but to share their technology andexperience.’ ‘Aspiring global Chinesefirms have to increase their interactions onall levels with their counterparts from

foreign countries,’ said Fan Hongli, ChiefExecutive Officer, China National Electro -nics Imp. & Exp. Co., China. ‘And we needto learn to explore the future and be able toprepare and be able to prepare projects witha longer term horizon,’ added Stan Fung,Managing Director, FarSight Ventures, USA.According to Jackie Wang, Founder andPresident, China Women School and FutureChina Society, ‘China is on the right way –the education system is world leading.’‘One of the most important conclusions tocome out of this meeting is the Chinesegovernment’s vision to increase the capabi -lity to create cutting-edge intellectualproperty within the next 10 to 15 years,’summarized Zhi Peng, President, TsinghuaAsset Management Group, China.

Fan Hongli, General Manager, China National Electronics Imp. & Exp. Co.

Justina Chen, Founder, FieldTech Inc, China Frank Schäfer, Chief Executive Officer, GreenPowerHybrid International, Germany

Ge Ming, Chairman of the Supervisory Board,China M&A Association

Abdulaziz A. Albakr, President, BusinessManagement Technology, Saudi Arabia

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Darius Montvila, Chairman, Stop Fake Food, LithuaniaParticipants getting to know each other

Zhang Zhongjie, Deputy Director General, Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co., China

Sally J.Yan, Executive Board Member, Drivetide Capital, Switzerland

Zhen Denfeng, Deputy Secretary General, Construction Industry Sub-Council, CCPIT

Maryna Onopriichuk, CEO, Future Humanity Mission, Belgium

Dmitriy Belousov, Founder, Play Ukraine Adnan Akfirat, Chairman, TUCEM Turkish-ChineseBusiness Matching Center, Turkey

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Show during the closing dinner Yuri Podnebes, Director, Institute Multi-Track Diplomacy, Ukraine, giving an interview

Delegates share a light moment

Arrival of participants

Panellists of the closing plenary meet to prepare the session

Vasyl Virastyuk, winner of the World’s Strongest Man contest

Li Ruoran, Vice President, EIF Financial Leasing, China

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