Since I live in China, I have to play a good host to our visiting leaders! 1,500 delegates including business leaders, academicians and government officials are participating. Coincidentally, our office in Dalian became operational last fortnight. (I haven't seen it yet!) Our team welcomed Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the Dalian Ascendas IT Park.
On Day 1, I attended a breakfast session on 'Quality Growth in India.' The Madhya Pradesh CM, senior leaders of Indian IT services companies and Kris spoke about the opportunities in India and invited companies to invest in India. Kris made an interesting point: only 2 billion people have access to a modern lifestyle, while an overwhelming 4 billion aspire to live comfortably. The imbalance necessitates low-cost innovation.
At the plenary session, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao emphasized the interconnectedness of economies, and expressed concern about the economic uncertainty in Europe and financial prudence in the U.S. He said that the quality of growth is strategic to the future of China. He added that the Government encouraged domestic consumption and innovation-driven growth in China.
I also attended a panel discussion on ‘New Frontiers of Growth in China' that included Gary Locke, the U.S. Ambassador to China; Li of Tsinghua University; Wang Jianlin, Chairman of the Wanda Group; and Kris. Kris said that the government should take the lead in innovation by setting the framework and ensuring policy compliance.
After lunch, I attended a fascinating session on 'Big Data.' Professor Pedro G. Ferreira, Co-Director, Programme on Computational Cosmology, Oxford Martin School, delivered a lecture on 'Astrophysics: Cracking the Cosmos.' He said that scientific curiosity helped unravel the atom, which led to the discovery of nuclear energy, the atom bomb and the World Wide Web. Similarly, our ability to analyze data with supercomputers will enable us to know the universe better. He introduced us to www.galaxyzoo.org, a community website where more than 250,000 people have contributed to the classification of galaxies.
Finally, I attended a panel discussion on 'Global Financial Outlook: A Second Great Contraction?' While it was a lively debate, there was no consensus on who will be the most affected.