From the Dean

From the Dean

Professor Houmin Yan

In this issue we take a look at business in the regional frame. The China foreign policy initiative One Belt One Road, launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, seeks to define China's relationship with the wider world, and also has implications for how we do business here in Hong Kong. In The Broadband Silk Road Eric Collins looks at the historical route and what we can expect of its present-day incarnation.

In One Belt One Road – the role of Hong Kong, I follow up the theme, looking particularly at the future role of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). As China's major international financial centre, and one of the world's financial capitals, Hong Kong has the experience, the expertise and the connections to play a major role as a fundraising hub and centre for infrastructure development. I take a look at the role of PPPs as investment vehicles, and how the College of Business is set to play a part with the establishment of an International PPP Specialist Centre of Excellence for Public Transport Logistics alongside our partners at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Big data underpins virtually all professional activity these days. And the College has recently been given a big boost in its analytical capacity with the establishment of a Centre for Business Analytics powered by IBM software. Professor of Marketing Wenyu Dou takes up the big data theme in Internet+ Wave goodbye to conventional marketing, looking at how Internet+ is creating opportunities to leverage consumer experience to create a new marketing paradigm.

We are honoured to have eminent economist Gregory C. Chow on the College of Business International Advisory Board. In Advice to the Premier we learn of his experience as a student of Milton Friedman in Chicago, and the service he has rendered over the decades in helping to introduce western market economics to China.

Closer to home, we take a look at the new face of our undergraduate offerings, where two new elite programmes will be introduced in 2016: the BBA Global Business and the BSc Computational Finance. We are also determined to boost student placement, and in an interview with Assistant Dean of Career Services, Ron Kwok, The Flipped Career Service, we see how both students and College can together play a role in building future success.

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I do hope you enjoy this edition of City Business Magazine!

Houmin Yan