Almost a decade since the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and expertise has accumulated both on the European and Chinese sides. Since its introduction, BRI has seen the migrant crisis in 2015/16, covid19 pandemic in 2020 and most recent conflicts in Ukraine in 2022. Chinese financial institutions are one of the key backbones of BRI. Often not in the spotlight, they are a key decision-making factor when proceeding with initiatives or backing away from them.
Our speakers come from different corners of Sino-European cooperation communities. Ms. Leong See Wong comes from the heart of European banking and finance – Switzerland. Her experience in bridging obstacles, connecting companies, fostering sustainable two-way investment flow will give an insight into lessons learned by the financial sector and its stakeholders on both sides of the Eurasian continent. Mr. Miljan Radunovic comes from a capital infrastructure development background with an engineering management assessment of past Sino – European cooperation with the goal of learning from previous mistakes. His experience of engagement in EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) projects developed in southeastern and centraleastern Europe, will provide a hands-on insight on the gap between theory and practice in developing capital infrastructure projects (i.e. megaprojects) from the perspective of financial sustainability.
The event took place on
Wednesday, May 11th at 10am CET
See the recording of the event
The main discussion topics covered in this webinar are:
- From the experience-based perspective, our speakers will be discussing
- What are the key lessons learned by financial institutions on both European and Chinese sides?
- What were the hardest lessons to be learned when developing business between European and Chinese partners?
- From the pragmatic perspective our speakers will be discussing:
- What are untapped opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between European and Chinese businesses stakeholders in the future?
- What obstacles will be biggest to remove on the route to more comprehensive and sustainable cooperation between China and Europe?
- From the anticipative perspective, our speakers will be discussing
- In what way can recent global development (i.e. covid19 pandemic and Ukrainian crisis) bring Europe and China together?
- Role and responsibility of China and Europe in addressing existing global issues and preventing future ones (i.e. fighting climate change, global famine, and poverty reduction)
Speakers
LeonSee Wong
SilkRoad Cooperation
LeongSee Wong is experienced in finance and supply chain management. She is a partner at Ideations, a firm specialising in connecting knowledge, investor relations, and advising clients and funds on business and innovation strategies. She is also the founder of the SilkRoad Cooperation, a collaborative think tank where Eurasian SMEs can nurture wealth through cooperation and trade.
She is dedicated to elevating the quality of life of the global society by focusing on the creation of circular economy, as she sees it as the way to have sustainable economic growth. She is also an advocate of cooperation instead of confrontation – building bridges between nations and regions, through international communication and collaborative discovery and innovation among disparate actors who share common interests, including academic institutions, government agencies, law firms, technology firms, private companies, and NGOs, by focusing on economic sectors, regions, and their intersections.
Miljan Radunovic
CIVITTA
Miljan Radunovic is a project manager with considerable years of experience in developing capital infrastructure investment projects affiliated to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in markets of central-eastern Europe (CEE) and southeastern Europe / Western Balkans (SEE/WB). Currently he is Project Manager at CIVITTA, the leading and fastest growing management consulting company in northern, central and eastern Europe. He is in final stages of completing his PhD thesis in project management. His research focuses on improving efficiency of BRI related megaprojects developed in CEE/SEE markets, by using modern project management tools. He is a member of the CHERN, an EC funded COST project.
He brings hands-on experienced of working with and for some of the leading Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), both in projects financed via credit loans and through PPP (public private partnership) models. In his work he actively advocates for a more inclusive, responsible and stakeholder-aware management of BRI megaprojects and emphasizes both the responsibility and potential of European and Chinese cooperation in the future. In his opinion China could benefit from having a pivoting role to the EU accession of Western Balkan countries, in case lessons are learned from previous experience.
