18 June: The Ningbo Youth Roundtable took place at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), as the first stop of the Rising Star Cities programme produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN). This programme aims to discover how cities of over one trillion GDP made it, with Ningbo being a prominent example.

Together with the host Michael Wang, Professor Martin Lockett, Dean of the Faculty of Business, Jiayi Wang, an undergraduate business student, and Samuel Ampaw, a PhD student from the Faculty of Humanity and Social Sciences at UNNC, held an inspiring discussion regarding various aspects of the city of Ningbo, including its cultural history, entrepreneurship and sustainability.

Professor Lockett has developed a strong affinity with China since his first research trip in 1975, and is an expert on China’s economy. In 2017, he moved to his current role as Dean of the Faculty of Business at UNNC.

During the roundtable discussion, Jiayi, from Sichuan Province, shared that in her eyes Ningbo is a smart, diverse, and inclusive city. Samuel, from Ghana, remarked that he was quite impressed by Ningbo’s input and development in the field of intelligent medical research.

Professor Lockett mentioned that during his field research, he noticed that the innovative ideas and products of Ningbo’s manufacture industry continue to amaze, “Ningbo has upgraded its industry to achieve high quality products, and companies in Ningbo have become more international.”