Inaugural Cornell China Conference To Start on October 27

By David Li, bostonese.com, translated by Lang Gao

On the weekend of October 27 – 28, the Cornell China Conference will be held in Cornell University, a member of the prestigious Ivy League located in Ithaca, New York. Cornell Chinese Students Association (CCSA), the organizer of this conference states that the theme of the conference is to discuss the perspectives of China given the background of national reformation and transformation.

In the telephone interview on October 17, Zhishen Yang, the co-president of the conference, explained that there would be nine panels concerning the most hotspots of China’s development, which are Capital Markets and Cross-border Investment, China's Macroeconomic Reform, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development and Clean Energy, Opportunities for China’s Enterprises Under Globalization, U.S. – China Relations, Education and Talent Development, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and NGO and Civil Society. There are approximately 400 students and alumni from Cornell University and universities in North America along with experts and professionals expected to attend.

Also in attendance are more than 30 outstanding leaders in various fields as the guest speakers for the Cornell China Conference. Prof. Kaushik Basu, the World Bank chief economist, has been invited to present the opening speech for the conference. In one of his previews interviews, Prof. Basu pointed out that China's achieved compelling success in economic growth during the past 20 years, mostly based on its comparative advantage of low-cost labor given the background of globalization. Nowadays, however, China is irreversibly losing this comparative advantage. In his opinion, the paces of China’s economic growth will continue and the living standards of Chinese people are expected to be improved, which calls for the adjustment of economic structure and growth pattern. As one of the guests of the Conference, Li Shanquan, Managing Director the Senior Portfolio Manager of Oppenheimer Funds is participating the panel of Capital Markets and Cross-border Investment sharing personal investment experience and viewpoints of prospects of capital market in China. Gongquan Wang, the Co-Founder and Partner of CDH Venture Partners is the guest speaker of both the panel of Private Equity and Venture Capital and the panel of NGO and Civil Society.

Zhishen Yang, a current graduate student of Cornell Institute for Public Affairs at Cornell University, introduced that the idea and preparation of this conference started from June 2012 mainly by Chinese students in graduate school at Cornell University. This event has been supported and sponsored by a number of enterprises from China and United States, as well as Cornell University. He hopes to take this opportunity to explore in depth the problems of China's economic reformation and development, and to provide more Chinese students studying overseas with the opportunity to participate in the forefront of discussions of the future of China. Meanwhile, this conference also offers a great chance for students who are graduating in May 2013 to communicate and exchange ideas with the speakers.

People who have interests in the topics are more than welcome to participate in the Cornell China Conference. For more information, please see the Conference’s home page: www.cornellchina.org.