City Seminar on Wang Dao Sustainability Index

Professor Liu Chao-shiuan, President of the Foundation of Chinese Culture for Sustainable Development, delivered a talk on Wang Dao Sustainability Index (WDSI) at City Seminar on 24 May 2019. Professor Liu is a well-known educator and politician. He is the former President of National Tsing Hua University and Soochow University in Taiwan. He was also the Premier of Taiwan from May 2008 to September 2009.

Professor Houmin Yan, Dean of the College, kick-started the seminar with a warm welcome remark. He said it was the College’s great honour to have Professor Liu being the 31st guest speaker of City Seminar; it was a good opportunity for the audience to learn about the contemporary application of Chinese culture on sustainable development from Professor Liu.

In this talk, Professor Liu talked about how he established WDSI with his research team.  WDSI is a set of indicators based on the Confucian idea Wang Dao to measure the sustainability performance of various countries. Taking empathy and benevolent governance into consideration, the index assesses sustainability development level from three aspects namely global ethics, inclusive development and environmental equilibrium. Professor Liu also analysed and compared the results of WDSI and the Sustainable Development Goals Index of the United Nations. In the Q&A session, Professor Liu shared insights on topics including the statistical method, selection on indicators and application of the index, etc.

Professor Way Kuo, President of CityU also attended the seminar. He appreciated Professor Liu and his team’s effort to develop this meaningful index and he wished CityU can play a part to promote the index and foster its development.

About City Seminar

The City Seminar 香港席明納 was initiated by Professor Houmin Yan, Dean of the College, with an aim to discuss topics together (席Xí), to understand such topics in depth (明Míng), and to gain something of value from the discussions (納Nà). Professors and/or scholars are invited to explore a wide range of topics during the series.