File photo taken on Aug. 3, 2008 shows a night view of Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang City, east China's Jiangsu Province. Lianyungang Port, whose construction began in early 1930s, is now one of the important outlets from eastChina to the Pacific Ocean. The port has been playing a pivotal role in connecting East Asia with Central Asia and Europe, offering an attractive alternative for the flow of trade between the three regions. (Xinhua)
EDINBURGH, Scotland, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Britain and China can cooperate in many innovative fields to seize the opportunities in countries and regions along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative, a leading British scholar has told Xinhua.
Sir Timothy O'Shea, principal of the Edinburgh University, was attending the Sustainable Silk Roads Conference held in Edinburgh.
Organized by Edinburgh University's Confucius Institute, the two-day conference has shed light on the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the opportunities it offers to Scotland.
The initiative, put forward in 2013, is aimed at building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by promoting trade, financial integration, and infrastructure inter-connectivity and people-to-people exchanges between Asia, Europe and Africa.
O'Shea said Scotland's strengths in innovative technologies and low carbon solutions make it an ideal place to consider how sustainable strategies can be developed.
There will be very many opportunities in countries and regions along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative, he said.
Britain has a lot of skills in engineering, advanced working in environmental science, and Britain is interested in different types of renewable energies. Britain and China can work very effectively in engineering, data science and environmental engineering, O'Shea said.
He believed there is potential in infrastructure, particularly infrastructure which is environmentally sound. Britain is good at that and there is a center for carbon innovation in the Edinburgh University.
"UK has many universities that are very strong in data science," he added.
The professor noted through China-Britain Business Council and other institutions the two countries have a lot of good connections and will establish new connections.
