Asia Centre

9 July 2007, Brussels. This event, co-organised with the European Policy Centre, presented to a wider audience the main recommendations that came out of the workshops held in Beijing in 2006-2007. The roundtable, supported by Alstom, the French Development Agency and BNP Paribas brought together experts, leading civil servants and business leaders from Europe and China.

On the platform were Sun Xuegong (Chinese delegation member to the EU), Zhao Hongtu (CICIR), P. Andrews-Speed (CEPMLP), Seán O’Regan (EU Council), J-F. Di Meglio (BNP Paribas), M. Meidan and A. Berkofsky (EPC).

The question of “energy security” is not limited to the fi eld of economics or to the geopolitics of energy. It is addressed here as a whole and falls within a research project conducted in collaboration with the CEPMLP, the Social Sciences Unit in Beijing (Qinghua U.) and the French Embassy’s Economic and Trade Commission.

This series of three workshops conducted by Asia Centre between September 2006 and January 2007 in Beijing was designed to study the reforms to the Chinese energy sector with an emphasis on decision-making and implementation. The aim was to enable participants to gain a better understanding of the Chinese energy sector. The seminars provided an informal exchange and dialog framework, bringing together Chinese and Western experts, academics and business actors. Participation from the Chinese side consisted mainly of think tanks and research institutes (often affi liated to decision-making bodies), with additional participation from State run institutes and offi cial administrations. These workshops were supported by Alstom, BNP Paribas, the French Development Agency, Jones Day and Total.