Since 1974 Prof.Dr.B.Hallier is visiting China on a regular basis, in the 80ies even for 6 weeks at the Shanghai Management training Institute, later to expand the international business of the exhibition EuroShop.

In return - especially under the leadership of David Zhang from Beijing - retailers from China are coming for store-checks to see new formats or technologies in the German retail - or they visit the HQ of the European Retail Academy in Roesrath for lectures.
 

The Astana Economic Forum in Nur-Sultan/ Kazakhstan : the biggest Eurasian Event at the Silk Road : invites in 2019 it followers to join its XIIth annual Conference ; this time the topic will be "Inspiring Growth : People, Cities, Economies". About 5.000 delegates from around 60 countries are expected.

Among its international speakers in May 2019 will the Nobel Laureates of 2018 and 2007 Prof.Dr.Paul Romer /USA and Prof.Dr.Raekwong Chung/Korea, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde/France, the banker Herman Gref/Russia, the CEO of Nokia Risto Siilasmaa/Finland and the President of the European Retail Academy Prof.Dr.B.Hallier.; more about the other speakers at astanaeconomicforum.org/en/page_id=5
 

The Chinese President Xi Jinping is aiming to bring his country to the top position as a global innovation center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 2030. In Chang Chun, North East China, an International Two-dimensional Code Industry Development Summit was organized to explore innovation opportunities for the commodity circulation. Prof.Dr.B.Hallier was invited to attend as a key-note speaker with the topic of "retail/wholesale as an innovation driver". For Hallier the Two Dimensions Code are "the new rails of the Silk Road 2030".

This high-caliber event was also used to sign a MOU about the cooperation with the european-retail-academy.org/TUN where ZIIOT/Beijing will be the Chinese Umbrella Organization.
 

Within the last 50 years China has turned according to Prof.Dr.B.Hallier from small local retailers towards nationally organized trade conglomerates. The Singapore magazine Retail Asia is listing as Chinese top players China Resources Holding (3665 outlets/ 15.4 billion US $ turnover) followed by Sun Art Retail Group (480/ 14.6), Suning Commerce Group (1480/ 13.9), Gome (1380/ 11.0), WalMart China (438/ 10.9), Yonghui (557/ 7.6), Bailian (3882/ 7.6), Belle International (20197/ 6.2), Carre-four China (266/ 4.6) and China Petroleum (26.500/ 4.5).

Worldwide known is the Chinese B2C platform Alibaba - founded in 1999 - selling branded goods to consumers in mainland China, Hong-Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The site accounts for nearly 50 percent of China's B2C retail - its market value is guessed to be roughly 220 billion US$ - before its acquisition of the Pakistani platform Daraz (founded in 2012). By this move Alibaba/Daraz will be also active in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanca, Myanmar and Nepal.
 

Five years after the announcement of the Chinese President Xin Jinping to support the revitalization of the historic Silk Road by a billion US $ investment - now in 2018 in Astana/Kazakhstan 60 mayors of cities along the Silk Road gathered to sign a memorandum for a joint Club ( see more : www.dailymotion.com/video/x6nihg5)

Prof. Dr.B.Hallier - participating as a guest at the Mayors' Round Table - sees a parallel in this action to the Hanse-Organization during the Middle ages which at that time was the driver of innovation and globalization around the Baltic Sea ( see also :www.european-retail-academy.org/BUN ) ."Cities can act jointly solving problems by creating cross-border solutions; University Networks of Applied Sciences can help in this dialogue" Hallier stated.