On October 21st, Professor Rob Dixon, Dean of the Business School of Durham University, UK, gave a talk on “Recovery and Challenge of Global Economy”.
The report was hosted by Professor Zhao Hong, Vice Dean of the School. Zhao Hong introduced the academic accomplishments of Prof. Dixon and the cooperative relation between the School and the Business School of Durham University, and gave the letter of employment for “Honorary Professor” to Dixon on behalf of the School.
Prof. Dixon(left) and Prof. Zhao Hong(right)
Dixon started with commenting on the European economy. He thinks that the current European economy is in serious trouble and still far from genuine recovery, especially the debt crisis remains unsolved. He cited Spain, Greece, Germany and Italy as examples and said that the key issue for Europe now is how to deal with the debt crisis. Dixon then analyzed the economic puzzle of UK: UK, starting from 2010, downsized its investment in the public departments on the one hand; on the other hand, however, the unemployment rate within the country declines slightly. He pointed out that this might be caused by the decrease of investment in science and technology, which in turn caused labor substitution. And this is where UK differs from other European countries. Having analyzing these issues, Dixon put forward that confidence was the key to economic recovery and growth. From the perspective of confidence he analyzed the future of Chinese economy. He pointed out that every time he came to China he saw something new, including demolition and reconstruction of buildings, which were very surprising to him. The boost of Chinese confidence driven by government policy was also the key to China’s economic growth. He thought that one needs to take exchange rate into consideration to understand Chinese economy; while being confident, therefore, over-optimism was not desirable. Dixon thinks that there are three advantages for China now, one is that global economy remains low, the second is that Chinese exchange rate remains stable, and the third is that global economy is in the beginning of integrated economy. He thinks that China can seize these advantages and play an important role in the world.
Prof. Dixon at the lecture
After the lecture, Dixon exchanged opinions with students in terms of investment and China-India economy, and offered wonderful advices to the students who wants to stay in academia.
audience raised questions
