Prominent economist Jeffrey Sachs says he chose Hong Kong and Shenzhen as the final stop on an overland journey retracing the footsteps of Marco Polo because of their significant role in powering the world’s green and digital age.
The Columbia University professor set off from Rome on June 13 for a 43-day, 15,000km (9,300-mile) journey, the Marco Polo Drive of Peace, Culture and Sustainable Development.
The former adviser to the UN secretary general said the journey was designed to send a message of peace, connectivity and sustainable development through green technology, as well as to highlight the importance of the modern equivalent of the Silk Road.
While the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road was Xian in northwest China, Sachs said Hong Kong and Shenzhen now played that role.
“Shenzhen and Hong Kong are our final stops because together they form the world’s greatest innovation cluster – the one that will power the world’s green and digital age,” he said in an email.
“If Venice was the western gateway from which Marco Polo set out, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are the eastern gateway of our own time: the great innovators and interconnectors of East and West, North and South.”