The 2nd International CPEC Business & Research Conference 2017 was organized by IBA MBA students and MBA Club on March 15th and 16th, 2017in partnership with leading universities from all four provinces and one university from China. On the 15th March 2017 the Presidential Session of the conference was held at Sindh Governor House and the Chief Guest, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan graced the ceremony and gave speech on the importance of CPEC. The Presidential Session was also attended by Mr. Muhammad Zubair, Governor Sindh and the honorable Consul General of China, Mr. Wang Yu.

The conference had representation from 20 National Universities and 5 International universities from China, Germany, South Africa, UK and Canada in this year's CPEC conference.

Delegations from following partner universities represented their institutions in the Conference.

• Sukkur IBA, headed by Prof. Nisar Siddiqui, Director
• Balochistan University of IT, Engineering & Management Sciences, headed by Dr. Abdus Salam Lodhi, Dean, Dean Faculty of Management Sciences
• IMSciences Peshawar, headed by Dr. Mohsin Khan, Director
• SILC Business School of Shanghai University China, Prof. Dr. Lv Kangjuan, Deputy Dean (Skype)

Following were some of the keynote speakers at the conference: His Excellency Mr. Mamnoon Hussain, His Excellency Mr. Muhammad Zubair, His Excellency Mr. Wang Yu, Dr. Farrukh Iqbal, Dean & Director IBA, Dr. Ishrat Husain, Ex. Dean and Director IBA, Mr. Syed Salim Raza, Ex Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Prof. Lv Kangjuan, Professor and Deputy Dean at SILC University, Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Dr. Miftah Ismail, Mr. Khalid Mansoor, CEO HUBCO, Mr. Nadeem Naqvi, Dr. Peter Hall, Mr. Ehsan Malik, Mr. Shamsuddin A. Shaikh, Mr. Irfan Siddiqui, Prof. Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, Dr. Abdul Salam Lodhi, Mr. Khurram Husain, Mr. Sakib Sherani, Mr. Ali Dehlavi, Dr. Aneel Salman, Dr. Rameez Khalid, Dr. Waqar Akram, Dr. Ahmad Junaid, Mr. Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, Dr. Mushtaq Ali Khan and Dr. Shahid Rashid. Apart from Keynote Speakers, a number of authors presented their papers in Parallel Technical Sessions and Poster Presentation Session.

Closing Plenary of the conference was attended by His Excellency, Mr. Muhammad Zubair who shared his memories as an alumnus and also shed light on the importance of CPEC for Pakistan.

The conference was attended by more than 300 participants each day from the public sector, corporate sector and academia. The conference was broadcasted live on IBA's page all over the world.