On 10th March, 2014, the Irish Studies Centre of SEIS, BFSU invited Zhang Jie, the production editor of FTChinese.com to make an insightful speech entitled “Irish Experience in the Global Financial and Debt Crisis”.

Zhang Jie first gave a brief introduction on Ireland’s economic situation in recent years and later described how Ireland stepped out one of its worst economic plight with the bailouts from the international community with just in a few years. Zhang jie then elaborated with informative statistics on the current situation of Ireland’s economy from the perspective of political setting, fiscal situation, economic growth, austerity policy, etc. Meanwhile, he also focused a bit more on Ireland’s property market, which played a major role in the country’s economic plight.

Zhang Jie graduated in 2000 from Management School, Lancaster University, UK (MBA). Between 2004 and 2006, he worked as Journalist and Producer for BBC World Service, London, From 2006 to the present, he works as Production Editor for FTChinese.com, the Financial Times Ltd, London and is responsible for the whole procedure of the website’s production and maintenance. He has also been a regular contributing writer for China Business News (China’s largest daily business newspaper) since October 2006, covering mainly UK and European political, economic and business issues. He was a Finalist for Global Leadership Fellows program, World Economic Forum in 2005. He knows well what is happening in the UK.