ExclusiveHong Kong and Shenzhen the perfect end points for modern Silk Road: leading economist
Economist Jeffrey Sachs, who is retracing Marco Polo’s journey to China, described the cities as the ‘world’s greatest innovation cluster’
The Columbia University professor set off from Rome on June 13 for a 43-day, 15,000km (9,300-mile) journey, the Marco Polo Drive of Peace, Culture and Sustainable Development.
The former adviser to the UN secretary general said the journey was designed to send a message of peace, connectivity and sustainable development through green technology, as well as to highlight the importance of the modern equivalent of the Silk Road.
While the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road was Xian in northwest China, Sachs said Hong Kong and Shenzhen now played that role.
“Shenzhen and Hong Kong are our final stops because together they form the world’s greatest innovation cluster – the one that will power the world’s green and digital age,” he said in an email.
“If Venice was the western gateway from which Marco Polo set out, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are the eastern gateway of our own time: the great innovators and interconnectors of East and West, North and South.”