The annual Belt and Road Initiative forum, jointly organised by Anhui Normal University of China and UTAR, returned after a two-year hiatus brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s Belt and Road Initiative forum was titled “Belt and Road Summit High Quality Development Forum”. It was virtually organised by the School of Economics and Management, Anhui Normal University and UTAR Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre via VooV Meeting on 22 December 2022. Various experts and academics from other universities, including the Tsinghua University of China, Xiamen University of China, Central China Normal University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China joined the forum to offer their wisdom.

The first annual Belt and Road Initiative forum by Anhui Normal University of China and UTAR started in 2018. Since then, the two universities have been actively exchanging research ideas regarding the economic and social development of China and Malaysia. The collaborative effort took an unfortunate turn of events when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, causing a two-year impasse in 2020 and 2021. The forum mainly aimed to facilitate the development of the Belt and Road Initiative by identifying potential areas for international collaboration.

The forum officially began when the Vice President of Anhui Normal University of China, Prof Dr Peng Fenglian, greeted the participants with her gratitude. She said, “China and Malaysia have maintained a good pace of development. The political development of both economies continues to prosper and stabilise. We also continue to engage in mutually beneficial collaboration, making positive contributions to the peace and prosperity of the two economies. In the past two years, due to the pandemic, the contact between our university and UTAR has been lessened. This year, with the joint effort of both universities’ community and international networking divisions and academic faculties, along with the support of UTAR Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre, we successfully held the Belt and Road Summit High-quality Development Forum. I hope that, with the platform provided by this forum, we can continue the peace and friendship to pave a future of mutually beneficial cooperation.”

A recorded speech was given by UTAR President Ir Prof Dato’ Dr Ewe Hong Tat. He made his joy known to the participants about the return of the Belt and Road Initiative forum, saying, “UTAR is very proud to be able to jointly organise the Belt and Road Summit High Quality Development Forum with the Anhui Normal University of China again. Since the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, the international communities have actively responded to it and committed to promoting international cooperation. Through close political coordination, infrastructure connectivity and rapport between people, the economies strive for the goals of shared economic and social progress as well as shared prosperity. Malaysia is a firm supporter and also a beneficiary of the Belt and Road Initiative. In this global economic slowdown during the endemic, we are facing even more challenges. Therefore, all economies need to cooperate closely with one another to seek shared development among the adversities.”

The first invited speaker of the forum was UTAR Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) academic Dr Fok Kuk Fai. In his presentation, he shared his research titled “Examining China-ASEAN Value Chains (CAVC): A Social Network Analysis” with the participants. They were enlightened on the fact that China-ASEAN economies are steadily becoming core hubs in worldwide trading through the analysis of the connectivity between country-industry pairs (CIs) by using a matrix algebra and graph theory from applied mathematics, Social Network Analysis (SNA). Dr Fok showed that, in 2005, the core hubs in global value chains (GVCs) were mainly economies from the western globe. However, in 2015, a significant shift was observed, as more China and ASEAN hubs were seen occupying the core area of GVCs. Not only that, Dr Fok even pointed out the importance of Malaysia’s industries such as the industries of computer, electronic and optical products in CAVC.

The second speaker was UTAR FAM Acting Deputy Dean for Research and Development and Postgraduate Programmes Sr Dr Chin Hon Choong. Dr Chin shared his research titled “Real estate developers’ readiness for big data adoption: What matters?”. His research mainly investigated the factors influencing big data adoption among real estate developers in Malaysia. During the research, Dr Chin and his team identified three main factors, including technology, organisational and environmental factors. Through the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), they successfully identified that Malaysian real estate developers put more weight on top management support which was included in the organisational readiness factor.

The third speaker, Central China Normal University School of Marxism academic Dr Jia Junying, presented an in-depth exploration of the Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce in her presentation titled “The centennial history of Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce”. The Indonesian Chinese Chambers of Commerce span across Southeast Asia, including economies like Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam. The first Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1906 and saw countless changes throughout the 20th century till the present day. To further elucidate, Dr Jia gave a clear explanation of the history, structure, system, politics, economy, functions and key members of the Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

As the fourth speaker, Anhui Normal University of China School of Economics and Management Deputy Dean Assoc Prof Dr Ma Changwei presented a brief biography about the 20th century’s “Sugar King of Java”, Oei Ik Tjoe. Dr Ma stated that Oei’s footsteps can be traced to many economies such as the United States, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and even Canada. Since Oei has many descendants in various economies, Dr Ma explained that his methods of managing his business assets, as well as inheritance, were well-worth the study. Oei’s method of managing his inheritance was a complex but effective one, as it involved various parties such as the beneficiary members, financial institutions and mediating agents. Moreover, the transferring process is based on a long-term basis rather than a single transaction.

UTAR FAM Head of Department of Economics Dr Tiong Kui Ming, who was the fifth speaker, enlightened the participants on the current trend of Malaysia’s foreign investment environment. The foreign direct investment (FDI) trends in Malaysia have not been favourable since the 1990s. The FDI inflows recorded the highest level in 2011, $12.197billion. Nonetheless, the level of FDI inflows as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) was low. In her research to discover the obstacles affecting FDI inflows in Malaysia, Dr Tiong found factors such as “access to land” and “crime theft and disorder” to be the most significant obstacles, as they present strong positive effects and negative effects respectively on FDI in Malaysia. Her findings also suggested a shift in importance of FDI factors from an economic to institutional lens.

The sixth speaker, an academic of New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Dr Wu Ying-ching, shared her research which explored the cultural aspects of a highly industrialised mackerel fishery in Nanfang’ao Fishing Port of Yilan. Since 1997, the people living near the fishing port have been organising an annual festival called “The Mackerel Sacrifice Festival”. Dr Wu stated that the festival serves as a form of relief to the sense of crisis formed by the increasingly industrialised fishery sector in Yilan. The moral value communicated through the festival expands the meaning of mackerel fishing culture. As a result, mackerel fish has come to be seen as not only an industrialised product, but also a spiritual being embedded within the reproduction of the community.

The seventh speaker, Anhui Normal University of China School of Economics and Management academic Dr Zhou Guiqin, gave participants a glimpse at the economic environment of the Yangtze Delta, which was considered to be the largest economic centre of China. During the presentation, Dr Zhou showed her research that sought to scientifically measure the coupling coordination degree as well as the synergistic degree of different ports located in Anhui province because Anhui’s ports are parts of the driving forces behind the economic force of Yangtze Delta. Dr Zhou discovered that the coupling coordination degree of the ports in recent years was high, but the synergistic degree was low due to the significant differences in development among the ports. Yet, the synergistic degree was increasing at a steady pace.

The last speaker of the forum, Anhui Normal University of China School of Economics and Management academic Dr Ye Lei, presented his research on the trends of technology transfer within China. According to Dr Ye’s findings, the energy industry and scientific research and technology services industry are the key industries that are heavily involved in technology transfer. Compared to the 2000s, recent years had seen a sharp increase in the numbers of technology transfer in international and domestic contexts. As more educational institutions build technical relationships with professional industries, the factors affecting the transfer possibility become crucial in understanding the trends. Hence, Dr Ye shared a variety of factors affecting the transfer possibility, including the core structures of the educational institutions, the core structures of the cities, and the technology gap between the educational institutions and the cities, to name a few.

To mark the end of the forum, UTAR Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre Chairperson Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu conveyed her utmost gratitude for the support from the Anhui Normal University of China and the participating universities. “It’s all thanks to the meticulous preparations by both Anhui Normal University of China and UTAR. In a very short time, we successfully organised the third annual forum. We wish to provide a platform where experts and researchers exchange academic knowledge and also deepen the collaborative relationship between universities. I hope that our effort facilitates academic exchanges between both economies and provides some policy recommendations for the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. I gained much knowledge from this forum, yet, there are still many topics to be explored. In the next step, we should promote cooperation among all parties, maintain an amicable relationship, and discuss collaborative projects. I hope we can share our research findings again in next year’s forum,” shared Prof Cheng about her feeling towards the successful return of the forum.

Echoing the sentiment of Prof Cheng, Anhui Normal University of China School of Economics and Management Dean Prof Dr Zhang Tinglong also expressed his gratitude to the participants along with his blessing to the future forum. “I am very happy to witness the successful conclusion of the forum. It was not easy to organise this forum in a very short time. The Belt and Road Summit High Quality Development Forum is a platform that initiates academic exchanges between scholars and experts from various regions. It is great that we had very good communication with UTAR since October this year. With the passing of the pandemic, I believe that the development of cooperation between our universities and the technical aspects of the forum will be better. I hope we could further deepen our collaborative relationship by meeting face-to-face in 2023,” said Prof Zhang.

With the transition to endemic, along with the continuous effort by both universities, scholars and students can expect future forums to be even better.