As reported by CCTV, “the year of 2020 is the closing year for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and accomplishing the 13th 'Five-Year Plan'. As one of the major contents of the 13th 'Five-Year Plan', 'the Belt and Road' initiative is steadily advanced; it provides a historic opportunity for countries to thrive and prosper, becoming an engine to drive global economic growth”.

In this regard, CCTV interviewed three experts including Prof. Didier Sornette, Dean of Risks-X, SUSTech. “Didier Sornette, the member of the Academia Europaea, the member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), says he is very supportive of China, which is always determined to seek long-term development through win-win cooperation, a very good example of which is 'the Belt and Road' initiative", covered by CCTV.

Prof. Didier Sornette interviewed by CCTV

“It (development) is through, I would say, example, trust building and concrete actions, so in that sense, I would say, the concrete action of ‘the Belt and Road’ initiative of China is a very good example. Let’s say, honestly, any agreement, any development should be win-win. It should be good for China, and it should be good for others, so any business, any association should be win-win. So, this is the most through concrete investment, concrete cooperation, concrete entrepreneurial action. By developing this process, by being very concrete, we can make a difference”, Didier Sornette said.

About Prof. Didier Sornette

Prof. Didier Sornette, the member of the Academia Europaea, the member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), Dean and Chair Professor at the Institute of Risk Analysis, Prediction and Management (Risks-X) at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), a full professor on the Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks at ETH Zurich, and also associated to Department of Earth Science and Department of Physics at ETH Zurich. Moreover, he is director of the Financial Crisis Observatory, co-founder of the ETH Risk Center, and professor of finance at the Swiss Finance Institute. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a fellow of the World Innovation Foundation (WIF).

Prof. Sornette is a world-class expert in the field of complex systems and extreme risk management. He developed the “Dragon King” extreme event theory, which uses rigorous data-driven mathematical and statistical analysis methods to identify, control and predict complex system instabilities and extreme risks, with successful applications in a range of other complex systems including financial risks, earthquake prediction, nuclear energy security, cyber-security, social networks, health systems, etc. He founded the Financial Crisis Observatory (FCO) with real-time monitoring over 20,000 different financial assets globally, and has successfully predicted many market turbulences including the bursting of three Chinese stock market bubbles happened in 2007, 2009 and 2015 respectively, the 2008 crude oil bubble, and the decoupling of the EUR-CHF in 2011. He has published over 800 journal papers and 10 books, with 44,000 Google Scholar citations and an H-index of 101. Meanwhile, he has also held roles as an expert advisor to several world-renowned aerospace companies, banks, funds and reinsurance companies, such as the Chief Risk Advisor at Bank of America, an external expert at Los Alamos National Laboratories and member of the Board of the “Fondation d’entreprise SCOR pour la Science”.