WiseDemo Campaign 2022 Launch Event was successfully held

 

 

On February 25th, CCG launched the WiseDemo Campaign 2022 online in Beijing. The event was attended by fifteen experts and scholars from universities, think tanks and international organizations as well as international young professionals who watched the live broadcast online. Topics focused on conducting exchanges to building a community with a shared future for global development and giving full play to the kinetic energy of youth.

 

Yu Tao, Vice President of China International Communications Group (CICG), and Wang Huiyao, Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and Counselor to China’s State Council, greeted attendees over live video feeds, while Mabel Miao, Founder of the GYLD program, Co-founder and Secretary-General of CCG, and Sun Ming, Vice President of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS), presented the format, highlights, background, and specific topics for this year’s WiseDemo Campaign.

 

 

Yu Tao emphasized the importance of President Xi Jinping’s “Global Development Initiative”, which points global development in the direction of a new era of balance, coordination and inclusiveness, while also advancing the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is also the hope of the international community, but it requires young professionals around the world to use their talents and contribute to this development.

 

Wang Huiyao emphasized that CCG is dedicated to advancing global governance and continued globalization, and has always felt that young people are an important part of this global dialogue. Wang also expressed his hope that members will use the GYLD to share their youthful wisdom on issues of global governance to provide decision makers with a wider and younger perspective.

 

 

Discussions during the launch included focused on five topics – “Open Cooperation and Interconnectivity”, “Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Development”, “Driving Innovation and the Digital Economy”, “Climate Change and Green Development”, and “COVID-19 Responses and Public Health” – resulting in intense discussions on the current state and future developments as well as guidance and suggestions for potential proposals by young leaders.

 

On the topics of poverty reduction and inclusive development, David Blair, former senior business columnist of China Daily, and David Ferguson, Honorary Chief English Editor of Foreign Languages Press and Winner of the China Government Friendship Award, commented that China’s achievements in infrastructure, education, e-commerce and other areas, have been laid the foundation for poverty alleviation efforts. They expressed the hope that that global young leaders would make contribution to reducing global poverty.

 

An expert on the fight against COVID-19 and public health, Guo Yan, Professor of School of Public Health at Peking University, pointed out that the pandemic has called widespread attention to public health, in particular the problem of unfair and unbalanced distribution of medical resources. She emphasized that we need talented individuals, new technologies, information, international cooperation and a host of other resources to help vulnerable groups hardest hit by the pandemic.

 

Wu Changhua, China Director of Jeremy Rifkin’s Office, and Xu Qinhua, Professor, School of International Studies, Vice Dean of National Academyof Development and Strategy (NADS), Renmin University of China, focused on the topics of climate change and green development, emphasizing that we should drastically reduce carbon emissions and strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection to create a new model for efficient and sustainable development by transforming and upgrading industrial structures and methods of production.

 

Focusing on how to drive innovation and the digital economy, Andy Mok, CGTN commentator, and Marvin Hung, vice chairman of Hung’s Group, said that technology can bring a lot of vitality, and they hoped that young people would focus more on technological innovation, find a balance between competition and cooperation in the tech sector, explore different entrepreneurial models, and promote a holistic model of technological development.

 

Liu Hongwu, Director of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, spoke on the topic of open cooperation and interconnectivity, citing the serious changes that are facing young people in Africa today. He said that more attention should be paid to connectivity in education and improvements in infrastructure in developing countries, calling on the international community to take more concerted action.

 

 

Other participants in the event including Jia Wenjian, Vice President of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Pan Qingzhong, Executive Dean and Professor of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, and Victoria Khu, President and Co-founder of SCOLAR Network said that they would actively provide resources and channels to support the research and innovative concepts proposed by GYLD’s young leaders. Jacob Dreyer, Senior editor of Springer Nature, shared his experience participating in last year’s WiseDemo Campaign, saying that he gained a lot of experience from the process and would continue to support GYLD programs.

 

The WiseDemo Campaign is an important part of the Global Young Leaders Dialogue (GYLD) program, which was jointly initiated by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS), and has received support and encouragement from universities, think tanks and the business community as well as renowned scholars and experts.