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CityU, Tsinghua and UNECE establish PPP Centre

City University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua Univeristy of Beijing, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) signed an agreement in Geneva on 20th January 2016 to advance Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) within China's One Belt One Road initiative.

This initiative aims to improve connectivity between China and Europe through Central and Western Asia along both the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the ocean-based Maritime Silk Road, which requires massive investment in infrastructure, and it is expected that PPPs will play a key role in mobilising resources.

The agreement was signed by Professor Horace Ip Ho-shing, Vice-President (Student Affairs) of CityU, Professor Bin Yang, Vice President of Tsinghua University, and Mr Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of UNECE.

"We have an exceptional pool of experts in capital financing in Hong Kong, a vibrant world city, and Public Private Partnerships have historically played an important role in developing Hong Kong's infrastructure," Professor Ip said.

"All this together with CityU's College of Business' expertise across disciplines such as transport logistics, supply chain management, business, economics and finance, provides an excellent platform to support this partnership."

As part of the cooperation agreement with UNECE, CityU and Tsinghua are joining forces to establish an International PPP Specialist Centre of Excellence for Public Transport Logistics charged with developing the best international practices in public private partnerships in the field of transport logistics, and delivery of the PPP training especially in the Greater China region.

The Centre leverages the complementary strengths of the College of Business in business knowledge and transport logistics, and the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University in public sector and infrastructure planning.

According to Dean Houmin Yan, the first action taken within the partnership would be an extensive training programme in Shenzhen, China, on UNECE's PPP best practices and standards. This programme will assist China's civil servants in preparing bankable projects and viable PPP project pipelines. The cooperation also includes a pilot PPP programme in Qingdao, China.

The College would also like to take this opportunity to thank Asian Capital Resources (Holdings) Limited for its generous donation in supporting this collaborative initiative and willingness to share its expertise in capital financing.

Press release by The State Council Information Office, PRC

Press release by the UNECE