Wharton China Business Forum aims to promote China's role in economy

Financial markets, housing prices, clean technology — talk of China’s most pressing issues filled the Huntsman Hall Baker Forum on Saturday.

Professionals and undergraduates and MBA students from Penn and various other universities spent the day at the ninth-annual Wharton China Business Forum. This year’s theme, Tradition Meets Innovation, attracted several well-respected speakers and approximately 200 attendees.

Forum Co-President and Wharton junior Sam Tang said the theme was chosen to illustrate the fact that China is at a crossroads. “[This year’s forum is about] realizing that China is basically going through a phase of innovation.”

“We wanted to take a unique approach,” Wharton and College sophomore Shelley Tang, the vice president of marketing and logistics, said. Although this year’s theme put a new spin on the forum, the major aims remained the same.

“Every year the goal of the conference is to promote China and doing business in China and China’s role in the overall economy,” Tang said.

Students in the Wharton China Business Society began planning the forum — choosing a theme, finding speakers and securing sponsors — nearly a year ago. They planned the forum’s events around the theme.

The various panels held throughout the day discussed subjects such as governments’ role in international business, marketing and real estate. As in previous years, the students organizing the forum found high-profile speakers with in-depth knowledge of business in China.

Edward Ryan, executive vice president and general counsel of Marriott International, delivered the first keynote address of the day.

China Country Executive for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Erh-Fei Liu, followed up with the second keynote, and Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of Global Indicators and Analysis at World Bank Group, capped the day with a third and final speech. The speakers focused on how China would meet its business and development targets, Tang said.

Penn students comprised half of the attendees, but students also came from other colleges in the surrounding area. Some students travelled from New York and Chicago, encouraged by their positive experiences at previous years’ forums.

Drexel University sophomore Yie Lao said one of the greatest draws of the forum was the presence of “a lot of famous speakers.”

Forum Co-President Diana Jiang was pleased that the long planning process led to a successful conference. “You see every part that goes into this one-day forum,” she said, later adding “it was really exciting to see the culminating event.”

This story has been updated to clarify that a number of professionals also attended the event.

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