A Journey of Transformation for a Better Future

It was the autumn of 1978, my family took a train from Urumqi, Xinjiang and traveled 2 days 3 nights to arrive at the hometown of my father in Jiangxi Province. This was a huge change for me, a five grader, born and grew up in a northwest boarder city of China to go and live in the southeast of the country, where climate, dialect and food are totally different. I did not know then my country would embark on a transformational journey of opening up to the world that same year.

Fast forward, forty years later- China celebrates its reform and opening up of 40 years and the huge changes this journey has brought to the everyday life of everyone, mine’s included. In the last four decades, many of my peers have gone to universities, experienced of having our first commercial flat, first car and first or many overseas trips. I myself joined Shell in China in 1995 after working for a state owned company and have since worked in London, the Hague and now in Singapore for Shell. My father has never thought of this being possible when I first decided to give up the ‘iron rice bowl’ (employment with government) back in 1995.

China’s transformation over the four decades sees China now being the world largest economy on PPP terms, with the longest national expressways of 136,500 km (*)from 0 km in the late 1970's, and high speed rail system of 27,000 km, accounting for two thirds of the world’s high speed rail track in commercial use. If we had the high speed rail in 1978, my family and I would have only traveled less than 10 hours instead of 2 days 3 nights! Forty years ago, individual car ownership was unheard of, China now has the 310 million registered vehicles, and 385 million drivers (*)[by end 2017] and has been the world largest passenger car producer since 2015.

Behind all the mind-boggling data and the mere fact of improved life, there came a cost and loss – the blue sky and clear water, the pollution that many are unhappy about.

Energy has powered the transformation of China so far and will continue to play a significant role as China marches to achieving its dream of a beautiful life for all. So, how can we power that progress together with more and cleaner energy?

Two weeks ago, Shell and the Xi’an government hosted a “Powering Progress Together” Forum where we have brought together government, academia, companies large and small and future generation of university students to discuss and debate what and how each of us play our part in providing cleaner energy, achieving beautiful mobility and enabling innovation and entrepreneurship. Over 400 participants from some 70 companies and organizations took part in the Forum, part of Shell’s Make the Future Festival.

The Festival also featured a lot of interactive activities for students and public, some 7500 of them visited the experiential exhibitions, feeling, touching and playing with the cleaner energy solutions. We also brought this experience to many more through social and digital platforms, over 40 million read and viewed our WeiBo posts and live-streaming of the Festival.

As the leading organiser for this Festival and as a communications practitioner, it is gratifying to see that we did it - a safe and highly engaging festival for all. At a personal level, I feel fulfilling that I together with my team and Shell, the company I chose to work for, could play our small part in China’s journey to a beautiful life. Let’s Make the Future, together.