Bruges, 23 Nov
ember, European Shippers’ Council together with the College of Europe held their international conference “The Belt and Road Initiative: EU-China Logistics and Supply Chain”.
As presented by one of the speakers, Sergio Barbarino from P&G, ‘800 years ago Marco Polo started a legendary trip along the Silk Road. He reached China via Mainland, but he got back sailing making it a truly multimodal trip. Now, 800 years later, we are back to the future in reverse: the mainland route is being reopened. It already represents 1% of the flows. China, Russia, and Kazakhstan are determined in developing it even further. From western China this is soon to be the fastest (16 days), but also surprisingly the cheaper route’. ESC thanks the College of Europe for co-organising the event, the speakers, and all the participants for making this conference successful and engaging.