Sep. 14 (SHANGHAI) - The Economist's annual "China Summit" event was rebranded to "Business in China 2015 and The Economist Intelligence Unit China Forecast" and held in Shanghai on September 11th, 2015.

As with last year's event, the Guanghua-Kellogg Executive MBA program served as sole academic partner for this year's conference.

The event, held at the Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre, drew over 200 participants and featured speakers from the Economist's various platforms, from academia, and from the private sector. In her first turn chairing an Economist Event in Asia, Economist Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes served as moderator and delivered the opening and closing remarks.

The day-long conference was arranged as a series of seminars and debates. Topics included: China's strong growth sectors; financial-sector reform and turmoil; multinationals in China; Chinese companies going global; and whether or not Shanghai is China's most innovative city. A networking luncheon accompanied the discussions.

     (Simon Baptist, Chief Economist of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) delivering his China "moving forward address") 

The event kicked off with an analysis of China "moving forward," a look at various trends and predictions for China's economy and financial outlook. Simon Baptist, Chief Economist of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and pictured above, delivered the outlook on behalf of the EIU. Heavy emphasis was placed on the growth in GDP of China and Southeast Asian countries as the accelerators and sustainers of global economic growth.

This set the stage for a cautionary train of discussion that continued throughout the day: would China have a hard or soft landing? Would financial reforms and China's transition from the world's factory to a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship herald continued economic growth and a smooth transition, or would something derail along the way?

(The audience of professionals taking in the China insight)

Registration and attendance reflected interest from almost every industry. The audience was engaged and inquired as to the most pressing questions facing China today: housing and real estate problems, stock market fluctuations, RMB devaluation and adjustment, etc. Overall, the event delivered frank economic analyses of China's future development, and left viewers with a better understanding of business in China circa 2015.