November 2019 Newsletter
Dear friends of the IFRTT,
We are now less than one year away from the HVTT16 in Qingdao. I am painfully aware that too little information has been communicated so far, but there is hope! Now the promotion film has been updated and uploaded to Youtube: https://youtu.be/3r4kH1pBvEU Have a look at it!! You will see a very dynamic country with regards to road transport and logistics. The promotion film may look like exaggerated advertising, but I can testify that it well reflects the reality in China. Please visit YouTube and share the video with your respective friend groups and please mention the dates for the HVTT16, October 13-16 2020 in Qingdao and the webpages below.
The Chinese organizers, RIOH plan to invite many relevant stakeholders to the HVTT. Due to the Chinese digital firewall they prefer to put the webpage on a Chinese server, which is both rational and understandable. That webpage http://rtest.rioh.cn/meeting/index.aspx is up and running and can be switched into English. It is still quite basic, but content and design updates are on the way. We are still behind on the English webpage http://hvttconference.com/HVTT16/, but hopefully it will be up and running within a couple of weeks. The two webpages will mirror each other and will be serving the Chinese and international communities respectively.
The call for papers is out and RIOH is pushing for a good number of Chinese papers, which will contribute to a deeper understanding of China and its challenges within the field of road transports. We of course also hope to see a good number of international papers. May I therefore kindly remind you that the deadline for the call for papers is 30 November 2019. With a large Chinese and Asian audience at the HVTT16 there will be great opportunities to exchange views with representatives of this dynamic region.
In the promotion video it is stated that China will soon account for 60% of all global e-commerce. This Monday, November 11 was Singles Day – China’s Black Friday – an e-commerce shopping bonanza. It is called the singles Day because 11/11 consists of four simple single digits. On that one day T-mall of Alibaba reached a sales volume of 268.4 billion yuan, which was an increase of over 25% compared with last year. The other huge e-commerce platform http://JD.Com saw a single day turnover of 204.4 billion yuan. This is almost crazy, but it also serves the purpose of pushing the limits of the sales and logistics systems. Every year new ways of becoming more efficient are developed that benefit the system as a whole.
A final note on the weather. As I have written in previous monthly letters sometime in November the cold Siberian winds win over the humid warm southerly winds and overnight the northern parts of China get very cold. This is about to happen in Beijing as we speak. There is a strong cold wind pushing itself through my office window making my knees and feet very cold.
However, at the HVTT16 next October in Qingdao we can expect some of the best weather of the year with temperatures around 24 degrees and dry winds. I very much look forward to seeing old and new friends in China next year. Now please help spread the word!
Best greetings from a cold Beijing.
Mats Harborn
何墨池
Vice President, Asia
