'Connecting Europe and China: Prospects for the Middle Corridor' Leadership, Organisations, Behaviour and Reputation Research Seminar

Before joining the University of Adelaide, Professor Pomfret was Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, USA, Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. He previously worked at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, and the Institut für Weltwirtschaft at the University of Kiel, Germany. He has also held visiting positions at universities in Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy and the USA and is an honorary Fellow of the Centre for Euro-Asian Studies at the University of Reading, as well as with Monash University European Centre of the Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE) in Warsaw, Poland, and of the research centre Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses within the French National Centre for Scientific Research (ROSES CNRS) at Université-Paris I, France.

Professor Pomfret has acted as adviser to the Australian government and to international organisations such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme. In 1993, he was seconded to the United Nations for a year, acting as adviser on macroeconomic policy to the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.

Whilst on leave from the University of Adelaide, Professor Pomfret has worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France, on several occasions. He was also Jean Monnet Chair on Economics of European Integration from 2017-2020.

The topic of this presentation is 'Connecting Europe and China: Prospects for the Middle Corridor'. This seminar will explore how China-Europe overland trade grew rapidly after 2010 from a low starting point, reflecting changing production patterns of global value chains in some industries, especially cars and electronics. With producers seeking to link their East Asian and European regional value chains, they were willing to pay more for faster, more reliable delivery times than by sea.

The costs of overland trade continued to fall during the 2010s as intermediaries responded to incentives. Almost all traffic passed through Russia, but this became a problem after sanctions were imposed in 2022. Traders and intermediaries sought alternative routes across the Caspian Sea's Middle Corridor, avoiding Russia and Iran. This latest twist to reduce the costs of trade has geopolitical elements, with this research reflecting on how the European Union and China collaborate and ways that countries across Central Asia and the Caucasus seek to benefit from lower trade costs and transit fees.

After the seminar has concluded, Professor Pomfret will lead a roundtable discussion, titled 'Developing an Academic Career Across Educational Contexts'. Aimed at PhD students and early career researchers, this discussion will offer valuable insights from Professor Pomfret's experiences in building an academic career and research agenda.

The seminar is for an internal audience and will be held on 30 October 2025, 1:00pm, in room LG01 of the Henley Business School building, Whiteknights campus. For those unable to attend in person there is also the option to dial in remotely via Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in joining, please contact Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk

Members of LOBR faculty may also request to book a one to one meeting with Professor Pomfret. Each appointment will last 20 minutes, between 3:20pm to 4:00pm. Slots are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To arrange an appointment, please contact Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk

LOBR research seminars are co-ordinated by Professor Bernd Vogel and Dr Anastasiya Saraeva.