PRESS RELEASE
Schiller institute Holds Silk Road Conference in Lyon
Oct. 22, 2016 (EIRNS)—A seminar promoting the New Silk Road was held in Lyon, France on Oct. 19, co-organized by the Schiller Institute and the Club China EM Lyon FOREVER, an association of alumni from the Lyon Ecole de Management (EM), a prestigious national business school which also runs a campus in Shanghai. The list of speakers included Alain Galliano, vice-president in charge of international relations of the Lyon Metropole; Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute; Professor Shi Ze from the CIIS in China,;Christine Bierre, editor in chief of Nouvelle Solidarité, the newspaper of Solidarité & Progrès; and Jean Christophe Vautrin, president of the Club China EM Lyon FOREVER.
This seminar was part of a double-pronged offensive of the Schiller Institute to encourage European countries, France and Germany in particular, to join China’s New Silk Roads project. For this aim, conferences were organized at two highly symbolic cities: Essen, nearby Duisburg, in Germany, and Lyon in France. Duisburg, the largest internal port in Europe, is the first stop of the train coming three times a week from Wuhan, China; Lyon is the terminus, as it was on the ancient Silk Road. This train transports silica for tires, electronic equipment, LED lamps, and sports apparel from China. It returns loaded with wines, cosmetics and foods. The arrival of the train is, a small miracle, covering a distance of 11,300 kilometers, crossing six countries, changing locomotives eight times, undergoing three transshipments!
When the train arrived in Lyon for the first time, in April, it was received by Mr. Galliano, officially in charge of the train. Unfortunately, because of urgent professional obligations he was unable to attend to our conference, but his endorsement contributed to making the event a success.
