On 12 April 2021, Jelena Stjepčević, PhD, gave an online lecture on „Maritime Tradition of China and Its Impact on Modern Trends”, organized by the Confucius Institute of the University of Banja Luka.
During the one-hour lecture, Jelena Stjepčević talked about the maritime tradition of
China since the famous sailor Zheng He and the Maritime Silk Road. China was also
a major maritime power at the time, and a large percentage of trade between China
and the Western countries took place by sea.
Nowadays, maritime trade has an important role in global trade. The Belt and Road
Initiative is one of the most important links between China and European countries,
and a significant part of it is done by sea. Jelena Stjepčević also talked about the
importance of Chinese seaports in today's container traffic and the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on overseas trade.
In 2000, Jelena Stjepčević graduated from the Faculty of Philology at the University
of Belgrade, attaining the degree of sinologist, and in 2019 she attained her PhD title
at the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Kotor. In her doctoral dissertation, she also
researched the corporate practice of Chinese seaports. She works as a coordinator of
the Office for International Cooperation in the Municipality of Kotor, and as an
author and co-author she has published 11 scientific papers in international journals
and with published articles and papers she has participated in five international
conferences. She is a member of the editorial board of the international scientific-
professional journal in the field of ecology "Montenegrin Journal of Ecology", as well as the international scientific journal Socio-Economic Essays.