Hi guys,
While thinking about the topic for the blog entry, I decided to choose something understandable for most of us which would not lay beyond anyone's comprehension (all DNA teleport machines are definitely way too difficult for me to grasp after reading one or two articles. Leaving a wise comment is even much harder).
So, my topic is more practical - as you might have heard, China is planning to build the silk road. This includes building two new routes - overland and by the sea. The point is to set a trade corridors from China to Middle East and Europe. From Polish perspective, this investment is crucial, because the overland route goes across our country, so - for example - we'll have an opportunity to distribute the goods further across Baltic sea and to the south of Europe across the land.
Please read these two articles (one of them contains a short movie clip):
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/why-china-is-building-a-new-silk-road/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/europe-china-new-silk-road/
and answer following questions:
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Poland should cooperate with both EU and the Chinese. Thanks to our geopolitical location we can play intermediary role in goods, technology and knowledge transfer between China and EU countries
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
It will be easier to get to the chinese market and it would be easier to create business relations. On the other hand i think it will be also a lot more money in startup sector due to bigger stream of venture capital money.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enormous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I think that such industries as renewable energy sources, transportations and autonomous cars / truck companies can empower this venture.
Thanks for the comment. That's a good point that we should cooperate both EU and China, but as the silk road omits most of the EU countries, so our national interest benefits more than the whole EU. Isn't that a threat for our position in the EU? Maybe our relatoins with the rest of the EU would go worse?
DeleteIt is better to have good relationship with China and bad with Germany than bad relationship with both.
Delete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteWe should seek good relationships with all countries, of course cooperation with China and US is important, but also after Brexit it is important to find cooperation with UK because of many polish people living there.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
I think that still the whole silk road will have more advantages for China nor Europe, because China is not importing anything from Europe but it works other way around. Having that in mind it might create possibilities in the IT companies by easier importing some hardware or new technologies, but I don’t see major difference that will happen.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enormous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
Firstly transportation including all vehicles, products and it may help with international sells. Many companies will have chance to deliver products easier and to many more customers.
Thank you for your comment. I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. I think that having good relationship with all countries is impossible. For example, US is a dominant power on the water, while China pretends to be one (There's a book about that - "Pacyfik i Eurazja. O Wojnie" by Jacek Bartosiak) The silk road is not only economical move - it's also political. China is going to be the dominant power in the whole Eurasia, which is a threat for other big countries involved in the area, including US. So, good relation with both US and China in this situation, in my opinion, is very hard to achieve. Having that in mind, while trying to have good relations with these two countries, other allies will go to the second plan, so the relations will be far from being good. And the question is - are we so strong that we should fight for good relations with dominant powers rather than keeping good relations with countries similar to us?
DeleteI agree with your answer to the second question. I think it will definitely have more advantages for China. They are interested in exporting goods, they are interested in building the route, so they are seeing advantages for for them right now.
In terms of who we as a country should cooperate with, I agree with both Cezary and Ewelina. We should focus on building stron relationship with the EU, China and UK. The silk road is to help Chinese not Europeans. Chinese factories are becoming more and more expensive, so manufacturers are taking their businessess to Africa, as African countries are still cheap and undeveloped. So I don't think IT companies will gain something from building the silk road.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about the US? Currently this is our biggest ally in NATO, and as Donald Trump said - there are only 5 countries which fulfills obligations to NATO (paying 2% of the GDP for the military), including Poland. Should we resign from such a reliable relationship?
DeleteI haven't heard that China is moving their bussinesses to Africa, can you provide some more informations about that? I know I can find it in the internet, but maybe you know some reliable source of information?
I personally thing that an ally that is on the other side of the ocean is not an ally.What's more how can we think that US is thinking seriously of Poland as an ally, if for so many years nothing was made in subject of resigning from Visas for Polish people coming into US. I think that in fact US doesn't care about such a small and unimportant country as Poland. But that's just me. Hopefully future proves me wrong.
DeleteWith regards to China moving its factories to Africa I can provide you a link to an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304788404579519631654112594
When it comes to question number 3 I guess innovative logistic and transportation companies could significantly speed up the process of building of such enormous route. But not only. Companies providing unconventional and extraordinary building materials could benefit from delivering their products to the building site.
ReplyDelete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteI think from the geopolitical point of view the whole point of EU creation is to be able to compete with US, China, Russia, India. As a single country it's really hard to promote and compete now a days but by creating a Union we are 500 million market capable of keeping up the competition.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
When I think of it the first thing in my mind is logistics, support for cargo management like scanners for transported goods. If the silkroad will pass through our country I think Polish people will need technical support to cope with such a big transit of goods.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I think we will greatly invest in logistics and handling big amount of cargo. For the moment our country is a transit country but in the small scale, if we will be on the path between China and western Europe we can gain by redistributing goods as we are first EU country along the path.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I agree with you that logistics sector will benefit the most. So large part of the market will need IT support, new kind of electronics and so on. Definitely this is a huge chnce for polish companies and start-ups
Delete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteTrump can elaborate how he wants to make US strong again and still he needs to cooperate with China. We can't depreciate their role. We should cooperate with everybody if we can. Even with Russia, as this is one of the biggest markets in the world and we used to export a lot of goods there.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
Cheaper equipment? Hard to say, they have potential. We have know how :)
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I agree with my colleagues.
Cheap electronics which can boost our productivity and improve our life? Who knows, this really depends on our government as well. From my experience I can say that manufacturers in China can built quality items if you want and those cheap equivalents.
Thanks for your comment. This is the first time I see somebody says we should even cooperate with Russia, and I agree with you. But the economic cooperation with Russia is hard to achieve as our cooperation is not bilateral. Due to some EU decisions, Russians set sanctions on some Polish goods while other EU countries still trades with Russia freely.
DeleteSo, your first answer puts another question on the plate - we should cooperate with everybody, or with everybody whom we got some interests with?
This is good point.
DeleteAt first we should start cooperate with those who want to cooperate with us. We will see what future brings.
Thank you for this article especial for second page. I've read it and I am waiting to see realization of this big project. Having two advanced lines of transportation between Europe and China should fill our stock with many demanding fabricate products. I really cannot wait to see rotating new cargo trains with Huawei P9 mobiles and sending our trains back to China. I hope that this huge interest won't be wasted on sending back apples or strawberries. Potential of exchange products between our global leaders is up-and-coming.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is very scientific... Nevertheless...
ReplyDelete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
It doesn't matter, really. We'll be screwed anyway.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
I don't think that this investment would change the business landscape at all.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I am not a futurist. I can't really tell. Large endeavors like this one usually result in many new technologies.
At least it's not the topic that 90% of us have no idea about and as I can see, people are not leaving comments like "I don't know", "This is not field of my itnerest, but..." or something like that. I can see that people are giving answers like "I think, that..." which is a scientific answer based on empiric experience.
DeleteIf something is not about IT, mathematics or physics it doesn't mean it's not scientific. For example, politics is a composition of economics, sociology and other disciplines which we can consider as being scientific or having scientific specializations. Don't you agree? And I think political problems are very hard to solve, because they have to be solved right here and right now in many cases.
I'm sorry that you don't like my topic and you exposed what you're thinking about it in your answers. At least, you could propose some scientific solution or articles which could help in solving the big problem lke building the big route. But thanks, anyway and good luck in passing the course.
Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of my long delay in taking part in those discussions. I will try to make up some so long absence.
At first i will answer the main questions.
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
The answer is not so straight. One of you said that we should cooperate with anyone.
I do not agree with that. We live in strange times. The people are standing against the global establishment. These are words on latest campaigns in lots of countries. Even in ours. I'm not trying to move in any political directions, because i watch the situation from certain point of view. People are worry that only specific kind of groups are getting enrich themselves and they do not share. Problem is that, we as a global citizens of planet earth, we do not care about each other. We care about our own business. (I know it sounds cheese :P)
So I think we can not cooperate with everyone we can because we should have to offer everything everyone wants. We do not have such opportunity.
We should cooperate with those who want to cooperate with us and keep that partnership.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
In my opinion the one of things we can offer is the new ideas. China's always had one problem. They are great in modifying current innovations. They use this method even in current times. As you are aware they do not care about European and US Copyright law. They copy everything. Watch the mobile phones market.
Of course i am not trying to generalise but I think the new ideas to share could be our resource.
Let me remind you the one of the biggest failure in polish science development. The blue laser. We lost because we did not look further.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I think this so big investment that it is hard to name them all. At first we should start form the big parts: transportation, communication, geological, environment benefits or flaws and so on. I am not even sure I can point them all. I think the biggest challenge will be green energy. There is a big difference in EU and China view on this field.
That's an exhaustive comment, thanks. Very itneresting view. Let's hope the history with the blue laser won't happen again with graphene.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to judge. I was terrified seeing yesterday news (http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/awantura-w-sejmie-kaczynski-postawil-na-rozwiazania-silowe/n26kq5s). It is really hard to say who will be the leader in a coming decade.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
I used to work for the chine's company for 2 years. What I learn from that time is that Chinese people are creating possibilities only for themselves. At the end of the day only China will have benefits for that investment.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enormous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
Please have a look at the polish innovations in road building ( http://www.benchmark.pl/aktualnosci/starpath-chodnik-podswietlany-uv-alternatywa-latarnie.html). STARPATH is mixture consisting of photoluminescent natural stone aggregate mix and a two-part polyurethane resin binder, allowing the user to create a natural appearance pathway in the daytime which transforms into a captivating soft blue luminescent glow at night. The newly installed surface takes only 3 minutes to mix and once applied is suitable for foot traffic after only 4 hours. That can have a major impart for future road building.
Wow, the starpath is really something! That's an interesting way of putting an innovation to a thing that exists in the world for centuries. This may be the direction we should take in innovations.
Delete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteI think that this question is really difficult. At first we should strengthen our domestic policy and then find strength allies, who won't impose their opinions and laws on our country.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
Only possibilities I can see is that chinese hardware may be cheaper. On the other hand I am afraid of worse quality of it and hiher competition. Also it may cause that some IT companies will collapse because of cheaper competition.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
As I mentioned before I think that hardware and other technology devices will be cheaper. For example china produce quite good mobile phone that are buying as a cheaper replacement for other more expensive devices.
Hey, thanks for sharing with us this information. Let me answer your questions:
ReplyDelete1. I believe there should be cooperation with the most trustworthy and solid options. If there is a way to not anger one of the sides a deal should be made so that all parties are satisfied and of course brings the best possible profit for Poland.
2. The IT companies would probably be flooded with requests for development of technological infrastructure to manage the routed goods in our region.
3. In one of the previous blog entries (I think it was something about autonomous cars), I mentioned caravanning of fully automated trucks. This seems a great idea to deploy and use.
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that Poland should participate in negotiations with China around the shape of the new Silk Road Route. Regardless of all geopolitical changes world is facing nowadays, we must remember that we are still forming the EU and our partnership with the second economy in the world might bring us a lot of benefits like access to the biggest retail market in the world, cheap manufacturing plants and reduced tariffs and quotas for goods and services purchased in China. For exporters, this is also a great chance since they might benefit mostly through sale of agricultural products and possibly R&D.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
The new chance will be for agriculture and logistics as well as for trade (Alibaba access for goods with limited taxes, tariffs and quotas).
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I think that in nowadays world – the world of globalisation we do have access to majority of technologies regardless of the existence of the new silk road or no. The thing that will improve massively is transfer of new technology and removing barriers for trade.
If by “us” you understand Poland that this is very complicated question. Unfortunately our political position is very weak (and it is getting weaker and weaker) so we don’t have the luxury of picking with whom we want to talk and with whom we don’t want to talk. We need to have our minds opened.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that China`s investment will change anything in the IT world. We already have many tools that allows us to work in every part of the world from our room. Remote and multinational teams are not something new. So I don’t see any chance for any big impact in the sector.
This investment may be a significant milestone for everything that is related with building roads. Such project will be an enormous amount of experience and will force to adapt to very big number of problems. Logistic, machines, ways of planning such project and so on and so on.
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, such geopolitical changes should infer not looking for new allies to cooperate with but to strengthen the already existing connections. We should strengthen inter European cooperation, do our best to have diplomatically good relations with United States (given unexpected ways Trump might want to go).
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
To my knowledge, there is not many new possibilities for IT companies thanks to China's investment.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
Such enormous project will definitely require the best of engineering skills. Most probably, simulation software, 3D visioning will help analyse and model the project.
ReplyDelete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
Sorry I don't know that when it comes to politics I am not the best person that you can talk to.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
Maybe something like this "New Shenzen in Poland" :D.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
I think that autonomous traffic like trains and trucks.
Many thanks for your comment. Yeah I know that not all topics will be interesting for most of us. For example I am completely layman person in almost every topic and it's very hard for me to leave a wise comment and not pretending to be someone who knows everything about everything.
Delete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to politics I am more an observer than an advisor ;) Yes, we live in time of changes, but firstly they are serious reasons for them and secondly when we look at the history the current changes are not so impressive. I belive we should not be closed to the cooperation with everyone, but should do it wisely.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
In my opinion the broader cooperation and the wider variety of inexpensive electronics might be the most intersting ones.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
As it was already mentioned in previous comments (and first came to my mind) - logistics.
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteTherefore we are globally weak and small country, we should cooperate with other great powers. I don’t want to indicate a specific country. In my opinion we should keep the principle of the golden mean in dealing with political powers and cooperate with all of them – if it is possible.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
It can give IT companies few new possibilities such as faster and easier access to the latest technologies. Moreover it can positively affect the prices of computer equipment. On the other hand IT market can be flooded with IT specialist from other countries – it has advantages and disadvantages because it depends on point of view.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
Unfortunately I don’t know such technologies. However it should be verified and well-tested technology because of huge usage of this route. I presented a teleportation issue in the article on this blog. I think it can be the best technology in transport however we have to wait many years for it…
1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeleteHello, I can not answer because it is open-ended question. Situation is dynamic and we should not close any doors. I think that there is not only the one correct option.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
Even if I know the answer I can no tell you :). To be honest sky is the limit. China is a big market and big exporter too but I do not have any idea.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
First thing that regards to your previous question is supply chain management optimisation or automation.
You live in interesting times - The old Chinese saying, and actually quite a serious curse fits well to what is happening in recent times. Is not much happens in politics, society, economy, both in the global and European level, and even our national dimension? Due to our strategic location between east and west Europe we have always been an obstacle in the way trade which often tried to get rid of. In the current situation seems to that the war does not pay off anyone but we have nothing before it is better not to make weapons such as economic cooperation with all who are interested and try to make even those who currently is not interested. In addition, Poland is an agricultural country and can be found in China's huge market. But we gain access to the largest factory of the world - and we have to think how good it used to make money in the global economy. I see a chance better access to intermediate products that can be used as a base for further operations.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should work together on all fronts, not closing the power of China or the United States. Two areas are interesting and challenging.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that Poland should try to cooperate with as many markets as possible: the Chinese market, the EU market, the US one. In the long run only such policy can turn out to be successful. You name a new possibilities the IT companies would have thanks to China's investment! Although I think there will be no significant difference but the silk route can make the speed of transactions accelerate. I think the access to the latest technologies will be noticeable and of course the prices of different devices and gadgets are bound to drop rapidly. Time will tell.
ReplyDelete1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?
ReplyDeletePoland is a small open economy. We undoubtedly are dependent on the external influence of global economy. It means that we have to react to incoming information and adjust to it. New threats, new possibilities require actions. I would not consider this question in terms of deciding who is our one and only business partner. It is important to perform calculations - measure risks, prepare scenarios and forecasts, measure profits etc., prepare negotiating position and hold talks. As I have mentioned Poland is a small economy. We don't have much to offer.
2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?
I am thinking about money for innovation, however, I think we will not benefit from this. China's is 'obsessed' with boosting its own economy so we have to decide wisely. Perhaps, creating new jobs is a some kind of a possibility.
3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?
Logistics with autonomous trucks is the first thing I think about.
I think that we should work together on all fronts, not closing the power of China or the United States. Two areas are interesting and challenging.
ReplyDeletegoldenslot
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