Jia Yu: Personal Journey of a Chinese Investor and Advisor in Africa

On this podcast, Jia Yu discusses what she learned as part of a team doing large scale investing in Africa from both a business and personal perspective. The colorful examples she discusses on the podcast highlight the importance of cultural understanding and the need for building the “soft” human infrastructure as well as the “hard” infrastructure components such as mining facilities, power generation plants and industrial parks.

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Hannah Ryder: Africa needs Belt and Road. On its own terms.

On this podcast, Hannah Ryder - economist, diplomat, development expert - talks about the recent FOCAC Summit in Beijing, a complex relationship between China and African countries and challenges related to running effective development projects. Hannah highlights that African countries have much to gain from the Belt and Road Initiative, but they also have to know what they want.

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Parag Khanna: The future is Asian. Commerce, conflict and culture in the 21st Century

On this podcast,Parag Khanna, best selling author of six books and one of the leading thought leaders on the topics of international trade, communications, urban development, discusses the Belt and Road initiative, China’s and Asia’s role in the future. Parag’s unique insights on the intersection of culture, technology, infrastructure, cities and geography make this podcast one not to be missed!

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Ankur Shah: Silk Road Explorer Investigating Progress of Belt and Road Projects

On this podcast, Ankur Shah shares his observations from his visits to Belt and Road Project’s sites and stories from his expedition following footsteps of Marco Polo along the Silk Road.

Before listening to the podcast, watch a 3-minute trailer of the upcoming “105 Nights” documentary about the expedition that Ankur took part in. Click here to see today’s Silk Road: https://vimeo.com/237607248

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Liu Zuokui: 16+1 Cooperation and the Belt & Road in Central and Eastern Europe

On this podcast, Professor Liu Zuokui(刘作奎), the Director of the Department of Central and Eastern European (CEE) Studies at Institute of European Studies, CASS, and the Acting Director of the China-CEE Countries Think Tanks Exchange and Cooperation Network Office provides an overview of China-CEE relations and evaluates the efficiency of the controversial 16+1 China-CEE Cooperation. He also puts his remarks in a wider context of China-Europe engagement under the BRI.

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GS
Francesco Lorenzini: Connecting Startup Ecosystems between China and Europe

On this podcast, Francesco Lorenzini, a founder of TechSilu, a group dedicated to empowering the cooperation between Chinese and South-European tech ecosystems, discusses the opportunities offered by Chinese market to startups coming from Belt and Road countries. Francesco also talks about the experience of running a company focused on connecting foreign countries with the Chinese market. He offers insights into challenges that have to be taken into account when making a decision to enter the Chinese market and provides an overview of institutions that can help in this process.

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GS
Martin Jacques: When China's Belt and Road Rules the World

In this podcast, Martin Jacques, a world-renowned best selling author, Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing puts forward his views on how the BRI will impact the world and enhance China’s global hegemony. It is a rare preview into some of the topics he will be covering in his next book!

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Sebastian Murdoch-Gibson: Exploring the Polar Silk Road

In this podcast, Sebastian Murdoch-Gibson, a research fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada discusses the ‘Polar Silk Road’ and its potential consequences for the Arctic and Nordic countries. He also talks about his travels, where he met a wide variety of actors who are involved with proposed Belt and Road projects including a former tech entrepreneur and creator of Angry Birds who wants to link Helsinki and Tallinn via a undersea tunnel.

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Harriet Kariuki: The Belt and Road Initiative in the Horn of Africa

In this podcast, Harriet Kariuki, a young analyst from Kenya who works at an investment firm in the region talks about China-Africa relations in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative. This includes topics such as Chinese investments in the Horn of Africa, the current debt build-up, the African startup scene, as well as integration amongst Chinese and Africans. 

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Chen Dongmin: Blockchain, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education are the Future of Belt and Road

In this podcast, Professor Chen Dongmin, the Dean of School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Peking University and a serial entrepreneur, who co-founded two Silicon Valley companies, discusses the impact of Chinese innovation and blockchain technologies on the future of the Belt and Road Initiative. Professor Chen also talks about the importance of fostering entrepreneurial education and supporting small and medium enterprises in making BRI succeed.

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GS
Don Lewis: How China is taking the lead in International Trade Law and Policy

In this podcast, world renowned Law Scholar Don Lewis discusses some of the distinctive features of China’s legal system, what is meant by the Belt and Road Legal “Architecture,” including in relation to the Cyber/Digital Silk Road, and the resounding impacts which BRI is bringing to the world of international arbitration and dispute resolution generally, with special reference to the recent inauguration by the Supreme People’s Court of the China International Commercial Courts in Xi’an and Shenzhen – the Silk Road Courts. 

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Christopher Devonshire-Ellis: Understanding the opportunities in Belt and Road infrastructure

In this podcast, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Chairman and Founder of Dezan Shira and Associates, discusses how foreign firms can benefit from Chinese built Belt and Road infrastructure. He stresses that the bigger opportunity for foreign firms is to actually understand the infrastructure build up and the knock-on opportunities this new infrastructure is going to create. One examples is the Chinese built Southern Expressway in Sri Lanka. This is a road which leads from Colombo airport and heads southwards. That reduced the journey time from 5-6 hours to 2.5 hours. That’s had a huge impact on the tourism industry, and some of the big hotel chains entered as a result.

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Rhys Whalley: Engaging Belt and Road through the Manchester China Forum

Back in 2013 Manchester took a new and innovative approach to increase its commercial connectivity with China by establishing a unique vehicle to lead its China engagement strategy:  the Manchester China Forum (曼彻斯特英中协会). Core to the Forum’s focus has been recognition of the importance that improved connectivity with China plays in delivering broader economic benefits to Manchester. In this podcast, we interview Rhys Whalley, Executive Director of the Manchester China Forum, who tells us more about the Forum and its work with China.

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Maximilian Römer