As Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the US-China Innovation & Cooperation Conference, I am extremely happy about the success of the conference co-organized by the Chinese Association for Science and Business (CASB) and the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the CUNY (AAARI), in New York from October 30 to 31, 2011.
The conference brought together elites from the scientific, technological and financial communities, outstanding entrepreneurs and government leaders to have a face-to-face exchange and dialogue in New York, an international financial, scientific, technological and political center, on important issues of innovation and cooperation and to explore approaches to win-win cooperation between the U.S. and China. The conference attracted great attention and support from relevant government departments of the two countries and made a considerable impact. Both international and Chinese media had extensive coverage of the event. While Phoenix Television and Sinovision reported at length, international mainstream media such as CBNC, Bloomberg TV and NASDAQ had livecasts. Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported the event while China Daily, 21st Century Economic Report, Shenzhen Specialized Zone Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Daily devoted special or full-page coverage to the conference.
I am particularly grateful to Mr. Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 10th Session of the National People’s Congress of China. As our keynote speaker, he delivered a speech entitled Revelations to China of the Global Financial Crisis. He pointed out that at the end of 2009, China launched a 4 trillion RMB economic stimulus package to cope with the global financial crisis and kept the country on the track of high-speed growth. But side effects of the package, including surplus production capacity, increased inventory, lower investment efficiency and mounting environmental problems, were gradually brewing in 2010. He made a special mention of the fact that by the end of June, 2011, local government debt had reached the 10.7 trillion yuan mark. According to a survey by China’s State Audit Administration, close to one third of the local governments did not have the ability to repay their debts. This is likely to turn into a sub-prime crisis, Chinese style. He believed that China would have to change its previous mode of development.He outlined the direction for China’s development: encouraging domestic consumption, developing a green economy, improving the open policy and reforming the education system. According to Mr. Cheng, at the core of international competition is the competition for human resources which, in turn, has human creativity as the key. Education is expected to help improve population quality and an innovative spirit. Based on in-depth studies, his presentation shows great vision, the courage to expose problems and the ability to come up with solutions. This is a hard-find for an international leader. The fact that China has a leader of his caliber is a blessing for the country indeed. He is also a living example of the successful pursuit of Chinese-style democracy. In answering some challenging questions at the press conference, he was, true to character, forthright, clear-cut and rational, a combination which made him highly popular among the journalists. Sinovision broadcasted the entire press conference.is also a living example
I am very happy with the innovative and effective way the conference was organized.
The Opening Ceremony took place on the “Star of Palm Beach”, a cruise designed by her owner Steven Salsberg as the first green cruise propelled with bio-energy in New York. Green-fuelled and fashionably decorated, the Star of Palm Beach provided an ideal ambience for more than 3 hours for networking and exchanges and a rare opportunity for many young people to mingle with the world’s top masters. Mr. Jerry Hultin, President of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, enlightened the participants with an eloquent opening remark under the title of “Technology Ushers in a New Golden Age”.He prefaced it by describing how, as a former Under Secretary of the Navy, he knew how to speak on board a vessel. In hindsight, the selection of the keynote speaker for the opening was a sagacious move. The intervention by Mr. Ma Zhongying, the usually serious-looking science consulor from China, was equally interesting and humorous. On the eve of her departure from her UN post, Ambassador Yanan Xu also attended the event with her husband Ambassador Jianying Li, which was truly a source of encouragement to us. I was also touched deeply by Mr. Cheng when he spent three hours happily conversing with the participants after declaring open the conference.
The main part of the conference took place at the Marriot Marquis Hotel, Times Square. There was a lively atmosphere in the grand, well-decorated conference hall. Among the main speakers were world-renowned masters who attracted a large attentive audience composed of many top professionals in various fields. The excellent dialogue between Professor Robert Engle, 2003 Nobel laureate for Economics, and Mr. Cheng at the end of the latter’s keynote speech pushed the conference to a climax. Professor Engle compared the measures taken by China and the U.S. in response to the world financial crisis and concluded that their different approaches had led to vastly different results. He particularly endorsed Mr. Cheng’s emphasis on education.
(Left: Nobel laureate Robert Engle Right: Grace Su and Entrepreneur from China)
The ensuing panel discussion on Financial Innovation and Internationalization of the RMB followed the direction set out by Mr. Cheng. John Allen, CEO of Greater China Corporation, attracted a lot of attention with his idea of establishing a global securities trading center and introducing global currencies. The in-depth analysis of financial innovation by Dr. Yang Pang, CEO of Shanghai Alliance Financial Services Co., Ltd., evoked a warm response.
(From Left to Right: Stephen Chang, Yang Pang, Shengbei Guo, and John Allen)
During the afternoon session, several veteran scientists and technology experts, including three members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Dr. Man-Chung Tang, Prof. T.P. Ma and Prof. Jaw-Kai Wang, gave excellent thematic talks that amazed the audience with their high professional level. A world-famous bridge building expert who had presided over the design of more than 100 major bridges on earth, Dr. Man-Chung Tang used his own special cases to illustrate the three keys to scientific and technological innovation, summarized as “Why? Why Not? What if?” They helped render the topic readily understandable. Professor T.P. Ma of Yale University, a semi-conductor guru who had garnered many international science and technology awards, set out the concept of “the Silicon Age”. In his view, humankind has entered “the Silicon Age”, a period that will last a millennium. He pointed to phase change memory (PCM) as the future for information storage technology. China, he asserted, will be the PCM developer and producer. Prof. Ma and his R&D team have now come up with the BAMC PCM chips, with his company as the first Chinese producer of high-density PMC chips to help build the country into a semiconductor powerhouse. Prof. Ma’s report attracted many institutional investors. In his presentation entitled From Diatom to Bio-crude with Profit, NAE Member and bio-engineer Jaw-Kai Wang introduced his new concept for world energy production.
(From left to right: Man-chung Tang, T.P. Ma, Jaw-kai Wang, Ruggero Santilli, and Robert Alfano)
As one of the themes for the conference, US-China win-win models attracted a great deal of attention. Mr. Karl F. Koster, Executive Director of the MIT Office of Corporate Relations, introduced the cutting-edge research being conducted by MIT and the university’s win-win cooperation initiative with China. Many experts in the R&D and manufacturing arenas also delivered insightful speeches. Xunming Deng, CEO of Xunlight, Inc. and professor of Toledo University, aroused great interest with his display of a brand-new solar energy product used for the giant Ricoh billboard on Times Square. Jianxiang Pan, CEO of Nandasoft Technology Corp., enthralled the audience with his report on the company’s successful example of win-win cooperation between the U.S. and China and its blue plan for the future. Prof. Ruggero M. Santilli created quite a stir with his progress report on Intermediate Controlled Nuclear Fusion without Radiation. This may very well be yet another successful case of US-China win-win cooperation.
(From left to right: Jianxiang Pan, Xunming Deng, Ronald N. Langston, and Karl Koster)
The conference culminated in the NASDAQ MarketSite on Times Square, with NASDAQ serving as a partner for the conference and with conference participants invited as distinguished guests at the NASDAQ Closing Bell Ceremony. Incorporating the NASDAQ Closing Bell Ceremony as part and parcel of the two-day event was in itself an innovation, one that helped push the proceedings to yet another crescendo. When it came my turn to speak at the ceremony, I was so excited and exhilarated that I almost forgot all that I had wanted to say. The closing ceremony, my speech included, was broadcasted live all over the world. For one hour nonstop, the logos of the conference and our Association, images of conference speakers and video clips of the proceedings were shown again and again on NASDAQ’s seven-storied giant screen at Times Square. This went a long way in increasing the impact of the conference and CASB and it demonstrated the American people’s popular support for our effort to promote US-China innovation and win-win cooperation models.
NASDAQ became the venue for discussions on the last item on the agenda– IPO in the U.S. or China? Experts and frontline practitioners joined in intense and intriguing exchanges, focusing on the real issues facing them. The session was particularly helpful for the visiting CEOs of over 30 Chinese businesses.
(From left to right: Karin Mckinnell, Xiaomin Chen, Weiqing Huang, Harry Edelson, and Selig D. Sacks)
The tremendous success of the conference would not have been possible without the support and endorsement of the U.S. and Chinese governments. Prior to the conference, Mr. Wan Gang, CPPCC Vice Chairman, Minister of Science and Technology of China and Chairman of the Chinese Zhigong Party, sent us a letter of congratulations, speaking highly of the conference, describing it as “a fruit of joint creation by personages of vision in our two countries”, “setting a new stage for Sino-U.S. dialogue”. We were greatly encouraged by his inspiring words. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang also sent heart-warming felicitation messages. I read Mayor Wan’s letter in which he invited us all to develop our businesses in Guangzhou and, on behalf of the Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology, invited us to attend the annual convention. Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qing arrived in New York a couple of days earlier to meet with the conference participants. Ambassador Sun Guoxiang, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, delivered an excellent upbeat speech. The counselor and consul of his science section were present throughout the conference. The conference also received attention from the U.S. Department of Commerce. I was invited to participate in discussion in the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington D.C. the day after the conference. Leaders of the Department of Commerce also endorsed the win-win model of US-China innovation and cooperation and told me that they would help establish a direct communication channel between CASB and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Lock, former Secretary of Commerce. They expressed the hope that through our concerted efforts, both countries would come out as winners in the innovation and cooperation exercise.
We have made colossal efforts and even sacrifice preparing for this event. As Counselor Mao put it, one could hardly imagine that an NGO such as ours could have staged and run a successful conference at such a high-level and with such high quality. We are happy and humbled with these encouraging words.
Once again, I would like to express my profound gratitude to all my friends， partners and sponsors for their generous support and contributions. I thank, in particular, my colleagues on the Organizing Committee and the volunteers for their unflagging efforts, day in and day out.
Many of the participants are so interested that they have made strong appeals for starting preparations for the next conference expeditiously. Some even made clear that they will send sponsor fee to us immediately for a conference in 2012. With such strong encouragements, we will soon decide on our preparation plan for the next event. I hope we will generate yet another climax.
Acknowledge: I would like to thank Feng Chen and Kan Chen for their excellent translation.
