Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and the Digital Technology Platform for Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Countries signed a memorandum of understanding on November 23, 2023 at CKGSB’s Beijing campus to promote exchanges of talents, knowledge and best practices in the digital economy between entities among SCO countries through collaborations in forms including events and communication.
Xiang Bing, Founding Dean and Professor of China Business and Globalization of CKGSB, Li Haitao, Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Finance and Associate Dean of CKGSB, Grigory Logvinov, Deputy Secretary-General of SCO, and Tong Dan, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Technology Platform for SCO Countries, witnessed the MOU signing on behalf of both organizations. Sergei Kanavsky, SCO’s Executive Secretary of the SCO Business Council, honored this unique collaboration through a video speech.
Having been riding the digital wave in China and Asia for more than two decades, CKGSB is well versed in dissecting the economic disruption that the region is experiencing today.
Dean Xiang noted in his speech, “China has been constantly leveraging new economic impetus, or economic disruption as I would put it, to propel its growth since the reform and opening-up, which is valuable practices for other countries. One key force behind economic disruption is next-generation unicorn companies. Since 2023, CKGSB has been building a global ecosystem for the next generation of unicorn and soon-to-be-unicorn companies, with a renewed and enhanced emphasis on global responsibility, social purpose and long-term perspective. We have successfully delivered dedicated unicorn programs in places like Dubai, Singapore, Seoul and Milan and will collaborate with leading universities and institutions such as Stanford to launch new unicorn programs on topics such as biotech, future tech and hard tech. We hope that CKGSB can share its rich experience in helping foster next-generation unicorns with SCO countries.”
Dean Xiang Bing also emphasized that driving digital transformation and social innovation are two other areas in which CKGSB is keen to explore collaborative opportunities with SCO. “CKGSB faculty are uniquely positioned to understand and interpret digital transformation across US, China and Asia. CKGSB offers experts like Professor Sun Baohong and Sun Tianshu, who possess invaluable expertise in digitalization. Professor Sun Tianshu, a trusted advisor to Alibaba and a former consultant for Facebook and Adobe, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. Additionally, three of our professors have assumed the prestigious role of inaugural Chief Strategy Officers at leading digital giants Alibaba, JD.com and Ant Financial, following their tenure at CKGSB, and they continue to teach at our school. We will continue to work together with leading organizations, companies and business schools to pioneer a global learning platform for digital transformation.” said Dean Xiang.
He continued, “CKGSB has been contributing to finding solutions to common social challenges facing mankind through conveying various stakeholders such as governments, businesses, NGOs and civil society. We have ample experience working with local governments to educate local entrepreneurs and business leaders so as to boost local economy in less-developed areas in China. We are now replicating this model in our collaboration with UNESCO, hoping to support regions such as Africa, and hope that through this partnership framework we can share our best practices with SCO countries as well.”
Echoing Dean Xiang, Mr Kanavsky said in his video speech that, as it grows, SCO needs new talent, new knowledge, new ideas and, more importantly, new partners with a shared vision for driving economic collaboration, and this MOU between CKGSB and the Digital Technology Platform for SCO Countries will definitely provide a good foundation for both parties to future develop mutually beneficial and complementary cooperation.
Mr Logvinov also shared his vision of SCO during the ceremony.
“SCO has identified developing and promoting advanced digital technology as one of its key tasks and that is why, under the leadership of the Secretariat of the SCO, we launched the Digital Technology Platform for SCO Countries. Having listened to Dean Xiang’s speech, I look forward to seeing concrete projects stemming out of the collaboration framework and am confident that the bilateral collaboration will play a positive role in accelerating digital technology in SCO countries.”
Under the MOU framework, both parties are open to support each other’s insight-driven events by inviting professors, business leaders and policymakers and co-create activities such as dialogues, seminars or forums. Both parties will facilitate communication, such as interviews, and promotion of jointly hosted events and projects on a theme that is of common interest in their respective channels. In the spirit of goodwill, in addition, the two parties will explore the possibility of more joint endeavors such as joint study tours and company visits.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyz, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Digital Technology Platform for SCO countries is a multi-functional, non-profit international exchange and cooperation platform with the digital field as its core under the multilateral framework of the SCO and jointly authorized by the SCO Secretariat and the Secretariat of the SCO Business Council.
Established in Beijing in November 2002, CKGSB is China’s first privately-funded and research-driven business school. The school aims to cultivate transformative business leaders with a global vision, sense of social responsibility, innovative mindset, and ability to lead with empathy and compassion.
