EVENTS
Event Highlights
"Rethinking of the Belt & Road" Seminar
2023-11-28
The Maritime Silk Road Society (MSRS) organized a seminar on "Rethinking of the Belt & Road" on 28 November in the Hong Kong Central Library. Ms Susanna Cheung, a veteran journalist and writer, shared her views on the relationship between East Timor and Syria and the "Belt and Road" Initiative.
During the seminar, Ms Susanna Cheung introduced the specific geographic location of East Timor, its history, including the colonial period, the anti-colonial and independence movements, as well as the difficulties that the country is now facing. She highlighted the investments in infrastructure projects by China and the trading, retail and service industries by the Chinese businessmen. She said that under the framework of the "Belt and Road" Initiative, communication and cultural exchange are promoted between people of the two countries and opportunities for mutual cooperation are explored.
In the second part of her presentation, Ms Cheung pointed out that while Syria has a rich cultural heritage, fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, it is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups. After centuries of Ottoman rule, a brief period of being a mandate state, and tumultuous post-independence regimes, Syria is now a unitary presidential republic under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad. Ms Cheung noted that Syria, lying at the crossroad of the Middle East, is under intense ethnic and radical conflicts. Due to the geopolitical tension in the region, the country needs external assistance to rebuild its economy and regain its stability.
Ms Cheung then invited her colleague Ms Besty Tse to share her experience of travelling in Syria recently. Ms Tse talked about the extreme difficulty of the life of people there, especially, the young people who were desperate to leave the country. On the tourism side, Ms Tse introduced Palmyra, an ancient city of important cultural heritage in central Syria which contains ruins, and art buildings that are still safe and worth visiting despite previous destructions.
At the end of the seminar, MSRS Honorary Advisors Mr Joseph Chan and Prof Lo Kai Yin presented the Certificate of Appreciation to the speakers to thank them for their inspiring presentations.
