"New Navigation" Boosts Suzhou Private Firms' Global Green Shift

The practical course of Suzhou's "New Navigation" Programme for Cultivating New-Generation Private Entrepreneurs was successfully held at Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) from August 1 to 2, 2025. With the theme of "Empowering International Development and Reshaping Green Competitiveness", this course built a high-quality platform for learning and exchange for Suzhou's new-generation private entrepreneurs. Professor Youmin Xi, Executive President of Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpooll, Professor Xiaobo Xu, Executive Dean of the College of Industry-Entrepreneurs (CIE) and Director of the HeXie Management Research Centre (HeXie Academy), and Professor Liang Lei, Secretary-General of the Industry and Strategic Resources Alliance of the CIE, attended the event.

On August 1, the opening ceremony was grandly held. Dr. Peng Liu from CIE and HeXie Academy hosted the ceremony. He extended a warm welcome to the guests and participants present and briefly introduced the background and core theme of the course.

Mr. Wennian Xie, Party Member and Vice Chairman of the Suzhou Federation of Industry and Commerce, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. On behalf of the Suzhou Federation of Industry and Commerce, he expressed gratitude to Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University for its support and extended a welcome to the participating entrepreneurs. Xie gave a detailed introduction to the "New Navigation" Programme. He advised the participants to cherish the learning opportunity, take the initiative to learn with an "empty-cup mindset", study in depth with a "problem-oriented approach", and learn practically with the principle of "unity of knowledge and action".

Professor Xiaobo Xu, Executive Dean of the College of Industry-Entrepreneurs and Director of the HeXie Management Research Centre, then delivered a welcome speech. He introduced the achievements of the HeXie Management Research Centre in the field of management, as well as the positioning of the College of Industry-Entrepreneurs in connecting academia and industry. Dean Xu pointed out that the College of Industry-Entrepreneurs and the HeXie Management Research Centre have already built a sound industry-academia-research ecosystem. He expressed hope that this course would enhance interactions with entrepreneurs, and that in the future, deeper cooperation would be carried out in areas such as research projects and resource matching, to jointly promote the high-quality development of Suzhou's enterprises.

Professor Youmin Xi, Executive President of Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, kicked off the course with an insightful and visionary sharing session. He engaged in in-depth exchanges with the entrepreneurs present, discussing topics such as future education, digital and intelligent development, and the concept of "industrial entrepreneurs". He then delivered a keynote speech entitled "Digitalisation and AI Era with Blooming of Ecological Flowers: Challenges & Opportunities of Management". Professor Xi emphasized the importance of "ecology" many times. He pointed out that in the digital and intelligent era, shared and symbiotic ecosystems will become a development trend, and enterprises should take the initiative to integrate into the industrial ecology. Haier, Huawei and other companies have set typical examples through their practices of building industrial ecosystems via digitalization and platformization. In the field of education, Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is also actively exploring the construction of an educational ecosystem. It has proposed two innovative platforms: "XJTLU Learning Mall" and "X-ECO Mall". These platforms rely on the concept of "HeXie Mindset" and integrate global resources through College of Industry-Entrepreneurs, realizing intelligent support and supply-demand matching and becoming an important practice in promoting the ecologicalization of education. Professor Xi said he hopes XJTLU can help build more industrial ecosystems and provide new ideas and directions for various fields to seize opportunities in the digital and intelligent era.

In the afternoon of the same day, the participants visited AU Optronics Corporation and GCL (Group) Holdings Co., Ltd., where they gained an in-depth understanding of the enterprises' cutting-edge technologies and management experience, and reaped rich rewards.

On August 2nd, Dr. Yan Dong, a distinguished ESG scientist at the Tsinghua University Suzhou Institute for Environmental Innovation, delivered an in-depth interpretation on the theme of "ESG Development and Practice". Covering overseas business scenarios to local policies, she provided thorough analysis on ESG risk management, information disclosure, and compliance requirements. Combining the "dual-carbon" strategy and the "1+N" policy system, she helped enterprises clarify international and domestic green transformation paths, offering guidance for Chinese enterprises to accurately grasp ESG trends, and assisting them in moving steadily forward amid the green wave to embrace high-quality development opportunities.