More INDUS interviews

Skype video or audio

Recently I had more INDUS interviews. Indus news is first international news channel of Pakistan.
Depending on their technical situation we use Skype video or audio with the mobile.

Program on 15 April 2020

“As the coronavirus disrupts businesses all over the world, it also offers an opportunity for online businesses and e-commerce. We take a look at how the world of online shopping is being impacted by the  pandemic. We also discuss the necessary pre-cautions that sellers and consumers need to take in order to observe SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure)  and avoid any form of transmission.”
Its a recorded program by Meshal Malik.
Link of the program: https://youtu.be/2JxpmiMg9GA

Climate change & income inequality

Meshal Malik was again the host on Indus News on 4 August 2020. My focus was Climate change & income inequality, themes in my book Toxic Capitalism (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792X896M/)

See the link: https://youtu.be/jdYt43JuMnU
Indus Special | Parents’ role in education | Climate change & income inequality | Ep 411| Indus News

CIFTIS online meeting

Using Womeeting

I was invited by Dongcheng District as one of the few foreigners in Beijing to be part of the CIFTIS online meeting on 4 September 2020, 8 pm. The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) was co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing Municipal Government and was held in Beijing from 4 to 9 September.

200901 invitation1

The online meeting was to join the “Global Trade in Services Summit”.
My official name posted was 北京大策略商业顾问有限公司范克高夫.
We were ordered to test the day before. The online meeting also offered English translation (and other languages). We were a total of over 300 online participants.

 

(You can see me in the upper left corner)

Official speeches

The keynote speech was of President Xi Jinping, I noted in particular his insistence on an “open and inclusive environment”.
That was later repeated by Premier Li Keqiang who pledged to develop a better and more open business environment to bolster confidence among foreign investors.
The Summit was featured in many media such as China Daily and South China Morning Post.
See:

4 September 2020 – China pitches services trade fair as proof of ‘unwavering confidence in opening up’ to foreign firms
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3100142/china-pitches-services-trade-fair-proof-unwavering-confidence
If you can’t use the link: 200904 tradefair

and

4 September 2020 – CIFTIS to drive global economic recovery
CHINA DAILY
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202009/04/WS5f51786ea310675eafc576a9.html
If you can’t use the link: 200904 CD_CIFTIS

The challenges for the so-called “opening up”

We could not provide feedback or comments during the CIFTIS online meeting, nobody could neither in the Summit.
I wish I could have given my 50 cents of comments to the President.
More about it in a new post. Stay tuned!

INDUS News special on COVID-19

Gilbert on INDUS News, again. A Skype interview for the INDUS News special on COVID-19.

For a “change” talking about the virus. Indus News is the first international news channel of Pakistan.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/9XG9-8CYcsU

Zhejiang Yuexiu University

UWEE BRITF in Shaoxing

On 20 April I left for Zhejiang Yuexiu University in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, along with William Spiers and David Li (UWEE). See about BRITF here.

After landing in Hangzhou a car brought us to the very large and impressive campus where we stayed in the model hotel and restaurant, operated by the students of YIHA (Yuexiu Institute of Hospitality Administration), located within Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, 2801 Qunxian Road, Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Milan Restaurant, and coffee in the coffeeshop. We had the opportunity to taste a variety of dishes, and coffee. All very well done by the student staff! We gave them feedback also on how to improve some details. The menus are all hand-made… Cute…

About the university

Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign languages is financed by a private Chinese biomedical group that also runs some five-star hotels (Marriott and other).
It has two campuses, this is the new one, with 10,000 students, the other campus counts 7,000 students.
It is a brand-new campus with modern buildings, state of the art class rooms, very modern, integrated microphone system, many screens.

It includes YIHA, YueXiu Institute of Hospitality Administration, 1200 students. It offers two undergraduate International Bachelor Degree programs: International Hospitality Management and International Events Management. Tuition fee would be about RMB 20,000 per year. Dormitory cost some RMB 4,000 per year. Total of four years. Extensive internships included.

See their introduction: YIHA Standard PresentationIPAD

The Library

We visited the impressive Library building with all possible facilities, see the pictures. We wondered if any university in Europe could boast having something similar.

Later on I donated my two books to the library.

The seminar

On 21 April Easter Sunday we first met the dean of YIHA, Georges Ubbelohde (from Belgium!).
The International Seminar on Internationalization and localization of Event Education invited dozens of universities and colleges event management leaders from all around the country to discuss ways to promote the development of event education in China so as to nurture more international event professionals.
Seminar was followed by a group photo in front of the Library.
Organized by: Zhejiang Convention and Exhibition Association; Zhejiang Oriental Convention and Exhibition Industry Research Institute; Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages.

Keynote speeches:

– William Spiers: “Internationalisation & Localisation of Exhibition Education – INTERNATIONAL VISIONS AND FEELINGS”
– Gilbert Van Kerckhove: ” International Exhibitions – Do’s and Don’t”

We later had lunch in the university canteen, huge and so clean.
In the afternoon we were given a tour of the library and campus, with Evelyn (Hangzhou), Holy and Chen. In the rain. The campus also has several shops and small restaurants.

Sightseeing

We were spoiled by our two guides who took us around Shaoxing City on Monday 22 April. We learned they were selected after a competition involving some 100 candidates. Impressive, flattering…
First came Shen’s Garden, with a history of over 800 years. Known for the love story of Lu You and Tang Wan.
Later Lu Xun hometown, his birth place and home.
Later I will post more pics of the sightseeing part.
After lunch in a local restaurant we walked around and had a boat trip.

After our return to our hotel we had coffee and met a Chinese lady author,  Fiona  who was introducing her book about coaching.
To close the day we had a great dinner in Shaoxing CBD, SIJIFENGQING XUNWEI Restaurant.

My view on the Belgian mission

The mega mission

I already gave a short overview on the visit. Here my view on the Belgian mission, personal observations.
As I was rather unhappy with the way preparations were carried out and what happened, so I skipped the huge reception in Kempinski Hotel in the evening of 18 November. I did not miss much, too many people, the VIPs too far away, no contact.
Anyway I already had met the Princess, on 5 September 2008, in the embassy. See one of the pictures (in wheelchair Tennis player Marie Annick Sevenans) and a media article:

Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, accompanied by Prince Lorenz, will arrive in China for a few days. Her main objective is to attend Saturday’s Paralympic Opening Ceremony and wholeheartedly encourage the 20 Belgian athletes participating in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. The Princess will personally attend the wheelchair tennis competition on  Monday, September 8. Ms. Julie FERNANDEZ-FERNANDEZ, State Secretary for the handicapped, attached to the Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health, will also attend the Paralympics and will represent Belgium at the Closing Ceremony.

And I met earlier Jan Jambon as mentioned, thanks in part to Peter Ritzen.

Media comments, in Dutch

Achter de schermen van handelsmissie China: “Wij maken geen stofzuigers, onze technologie kunnen ze niet snel kopiëren”
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/18/achter-de-schermen-van-de-grootste-belgische-handelsmissie-ooit/

Achter de schermen van de Belgische handelsmissie in China (deel 2) : peren, studenten én voetbal
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/21/achter-de-schermen-van-de-chinese-handelsmissie-peren-voetbal/
In Shanghai is de Belgische handelsmissie in China afgesloten. Meer dan 630 deelnemers trokken 5 dagen door het land in de hoop een nieuwe afzetmarkt te vinden voor onze producten en expertise. Maar wat gaat dat op termijn opleveren? En was zo’n missie wel gepast op het ogenblik dat het democratisch protest in Hongkong de kop in werd geslagen?

The hacking

The hacking story received a lot of comments, some found it to be naive and out of context. Of course we know the Chinese will hack and spy but the “expert” proved to be rather naive indeed. See comment from VRT.

Just curious I checked my desktop (iMac) that is pretty well protected by its firewall and other basic tricks. Yes, there were some attempts of intrusions but overall it seemed pretty lame. See the screenshot.

As for the impact, I have my doubts.

Yes, a mission led by the Princess can indeed open doors and has a positive effect. However:

– Such a big delegation floods the Chinese administration and business world. As a result meetings can be too superficial and unfocused, and done in a rush.
– Many still have unrealistic and naive expectations in this market. A lot of noise concerning a “new platform to import Belgian products such as beer, cookies, Belgian fries and other”. Good luck with that. Many tried, most failed for a variety of reasons I don’t want to explain here.
– The proof will be: let’s see after one year what became of all the “signed deals”.

Preparation of the mission was in my view disappointing. People with proven local expertise were ignored. No further comments.

TV interview

I was interviewed by Bart Aerts of VRT NWS, we finally agreed on the location: Morel’s Restaurant. I understand the interview would come out in February 2020.

Present were Renaat Morel, Bart Aerts, Karl Lagatie en Vlad Vanderkelen.