Source: News Center
Written by: News Center
Photo by: News Center, Kaisaier
Translated by: Tan Shan, Liang Wenjie
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

The second Lingnan Forum cosponsored by Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University and Caixin Media was held in K. K. Leung Hall of Sun Yat-sen University on March 31. Xu Shaohua, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, and Xu Ningsheng, President of Sun Yat-sen University, attended the opening ceremony. Liu Mingkang, Chairman of the Forum, Honorary Dean of Lingnan College and former Chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, presided over the opening ceremony.
Executive Vice Governor Xu Shaohua delivered the opening address. He first expressed sincere welcome to the guests attending the Forum on behalf of Hu Chunhua, Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, and Zhu Xiaodan, Governor of Guangdong Province. He mentioned that the important requirements and ardent expectations put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection tour of Guangdong Province last year have charted the course and provided powerful momentum for the new round of reform and development in Guangdong; he also pointed out that faced with new situation and new mission, Guangdong should clearly see its problems and enormous challenges. He said that the development of Guangdong should enable people from each social stratum to be in their proper place and live a happy life, make the fruits of reform and opening up benefit our people more and form institutional arrangements. He emphasized that Guangdong’s provincial condition is a microcosm of the national conditions – rapid transformation of social structure, profound changes in economic system, constant adjustment of interests pattern, and increasingly diverse ideas, there is an urgent need to find the essence of things from numerous complicated phenomena and cases; both practice and theory are needed to solve problems and contradictions and meet severe challenges. He expected that the Lingnan Forum will continue to be a success and more wise men will provide policy suggestions for Guangdong.

President Xu Ningsheng extended a warm welcome to all the guests present on behalf of Sun Yat-sen University, and expressed heartfelt thanks to all sectors of society that have offered strong support for the Forum. He said that last year Sun Yat-sen University successfully held the first Lingnan Forum. It has obtained significant influence and notable results, and provided comments and suggestions of great reference value for the future economic situation. The theme of this year’s Forum is “China’s Economy: New Era, New Momentum”. It feels the pulse of the time, focuses on the new political and economic patterns in China, and contributes wisdom to the future economic development. He said that Sun Yat-sen University will support the Forum as always and make efforts to run the Forum well. Moreover, he sincerely hoped that the Forum will play a positive role in promoting the construction of related disciplines, facilitating teaching and research, and improving the students’ ability to put knowledge into practical use. Finally, President Xu Ningsheng sincerely wished the second Lingnan Forum a great success.

Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology and Secretary of Party Leadership Group; Chen Yunxian, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province; Hu Cunzhi, Vice Minister of Land and Resources; Wan Bentai, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Environmental Protection; Liu Shijin, Vice President of Development Research Center of the State Council; Chen Jianhua, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of Guangzhou; Hu Shuli, Chief Editor of Caixin Media and Dean of School of Communication and Design of Sun Yat-sen University; and Song Liping, President and CEO of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, delivered a keynote speech respectively on industrial transformation and upgrading, new financial development, the progress of urbanization, promoting green development through environmental protection, stabilizing growth through reform, developing urban mineral industry to realize cyclic economic development, the “long and short plate” of reform, enterprise merger and reconstruction, and other issues.
Centering on the two topics of “quality growth” and “effective transformation” respectively, the Forum held two round-table discussions. The speakers of the first round-table discussion included Tang Jie, Vice Mayor of Shenzhen; Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive of Hong Kong Monetary Authority; Alvin Chua, Executive Director and Head of Asia for F&C Asset Management PLC ; Zheng Yongnian, Director of East Asian Institute of National University of Singapore; Xu Chenggang, Quoin Professor in Economic Development at the University of Hong Kong and World-Class University visiting professor at Seoul National University (WCU-SNU); Li Hejun, Vice Chairman of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Member of the CPPCC National Committee, and Chairman of the Board & CEO of Hanergy Holding Group Limited; Christopher Hui, Vice President of Mainland Development Department of HKEx. The discussion was moderated by Wang Shuo, Managing Editor of Caixin Media.

The speakers in the second round-table discussion included Xin Xiaowei, Director of Statistics Bureau of Guangdong Province; Xu Xiaonian, Professor of Economics and Finance of China Europe International Business School; Annie Wu, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and Vice Chairman of Beijing Air Catering Co., Ltd.; K.C. Liu, Chairman and CEO of Adavantech Co., Ltd.; Dong Mingzhu, Chairman of the Board and President of Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai; Wang Qiaoqi, Chief Editor of Commercial Times (Taiwan). The discussion was moderated by Professor Zhang Jianqi of Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University. The speakers expressed their views on improving GDP quality, state ownership of land, entrepreneurship, talent cultivation, private property rights protection, judicial independence, creating a fair environment, corporate innovation in Taiwan, etc. The heated discussion received rounds of applause from the audience.
Chairman Liu Mingkang gave the last keynote speech. He said that the Forum reflected the exchange and interaction between government and enterprises, between theorists and entrepreneurs, and among mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as the gradual internationalization of the Forum. It initiated a collision of ideas and helped to form a complementary and win-win situation. Then taking ships and cars as an example, he talked about changes taking place quietly around us, and emphasized the significance of changing ideas and keeping pace with the times. He proposed that we should have a new way of thinking in the new era of enormous changes and in the pursuit of a new road, and wished that everyone’s Chinese dream will come true.

Xu Xinzhong, Executive Chairman of Lingnan Forum and Dean of Lingnan College of Sun Yat-sen University, delivered the closing address.

The second Lingnan Forum gathered over a thousand political, commercial and academic leaders to focus on the new political and economic patterns in China, discuss the road toward the realization of a well-off society in an all round way in 2020, interpret the demands and expectations of a new round of deepening reform, and discuss the possibility of long-term sustainable development.