By He Yin, People’s Daily
“Committed to a win-win strategy of opening-up, China is ready to join hands with other countries to promote sci-tech innovation and make science and technologies better serve people of all countries,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping in a congratulatory letter to the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum on May 25.
Mankind needs international cooperation, openness and sharing more than ever in order to address common development problems, Xi said.
His remarks demonstrated the firm determination of China to carry out international cooperation on sci-tech innovation and bring the benefits of sci-tech innovation to more countries and people.
The Zhongguancun Forum focuses on hotspot topics in frontier technologies and global development. It is an important platform for international cooperation and exchanges on sci-tech innovation. Over the past decade, the forum has grown into a signature of China’s sci-tech exchanges with the rest of the world.
This year, the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum attracted guests from more than 80 countries and regions, as well as almost 200 international organizations, institutions and foreign government departments. Nearly 120 top experts in various fields delivered speeches during the forum.
Themed “Open Cooperation for a Shared Future,” the event further demonstrated China’s confidence and sincerity in promoting opening-up and cooperation in science and technology and sharing the outcomes of sci-tech innovation.
Over the past 10 years of the new era, China, placing sci-tech innovation at the core of national development, has achieved remarkable accomplishments in sci-tech development and joined the ranks of the world’s innovators.
The nationwide R&D spending of China rose from 1 trillion yuan ($141.32 billion) in 2012 to 3.09 trillion yuan in 2022, and the country is now home to the largest cohort of R&D personnel in the world. Sci-tech innovation has become an important factor driving the country’s high-quality economic development, growth in comprehensive national strength, and improvement in global competitiveness.
Volker Tschapke, honorary president of Germany’s Prussian Society, believes that China has made remarkable achievements in science and technology by following an innovation-driven development strategy. He said China has become a forerunner of sci-tech development in many aspects.
China is always an advocate, promoter and practitioner of opening-up and cooperation in science and technology.
It has established sci-tech cooperation relations with more than 160 countries and regions, and signed 116 inter-governmental agreements on sci-tech cooperation, building a new pattern of opening-up and cooperation in science and technology that is all-round, multi-level, and wide-ranging.
China has reaped fruitful results in its practical cooperation with many countries in science and technology-assisted poverty alleviation, science and technology-assisted COVID-19 response, biodiversity, climate change, clean energy and other areas.
Offering Chinese plans for global sci-tech development and governance, China has implemented the Belt and Road Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan, launched the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center, promoted the establishment of the South-South Cooperation Center for Technology Transfer, and kicked off a joint demonstration project for the transfer of renewable energy technologies.
With China’s increasing integration into the global innovation pattern, the country’s technological development will surely become a more important engine of global innovation, said Saifur Rahman, President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
China not only actively joins the global sci-tech innovation network, but also is committed to bringing the outcomes of sci-tech innovation to more countries and people.
In the past year since the China-Laos Railway was put into operation, the international line has brought tangible benefits to the people along its route and created vital opportunities for regional connectivity and development.
China has trained over 14,000 experts of hybrid rice for some 80 developing countries through various agricultural assistance programs, significantly lifting local grain output.
China welcomes all member states of the United Nations to use its space station and has announced nine projects that involve 23 institutions from 17 countries as its first batch of selected projects, making important contributions to humanity’s exploration of the space.
China actively shares its technological innovation achievements with the world, and strives to contribute Chinese wisdom and technological strength to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
China has an incredible mix of expertise and experience, combined with its longstanding commitmentto technological innovation, it will be able to make unique contributions by sharing its technologies and experiences, said Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation,
Collaborative, cooperative and open innovation is an unstoppable trend of the global sci-tech development. Scientific and technological advances should benefit all humanity rather than be used to curb and contain other countries’ development. A few countries, pursuing sci-tech hegemony and forcing a decoupling, is imposing threats against the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains.
Recently, nearly 100 participants to a plenary meeting of the International Science Council held in Paris said that the global sci-tech community should strengthen cooperation and build consensuses to promote common progress and sustainable development, especially when the world is facing complicated situations.
