OBOR conference: report

The report from the international conference “The Belt and Road Initiative: EU-China Logistics and Supply Chain” that took place in November 2017 is now available as the special issue of the EU-China Observer. This issue provides a summary of the key points raised by each speech according to the event structure.

The conference covered a broad range of topics pertaining to the key issue of connectivity between the EU and China. As for shippers, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), or sometimes called One Belt One Road (OBOR), demonstrates once again the importance of cooperation between partners in a supply chain. The scholars, experts, entrepreneurs, businessmen, practitioners, and policymakers that gathered at the conference looked at the development and impact of railway links and the growing network of maritime commercial lanes between China and the EU. They focused on technical and logistical issues and investigated the challenges and opportunities of enhanced connectivity from both the Chinese and European standpoints. The conference offered an excellent opportunity for fruitful debates in the spirit of pooling cross-cutting expertise and enhancing people-to-people contacts. The EU and China need to focus more on the vast areas between them where opportunities for joint cooperation are plentiful.

The event was organised by the European Shippers’ Council together with the EU-China Research Centre and the Baillet Latour Chair of European Union-China Relations at the College of Europe in Bruges on 23 November 2017.