Commentary: Tech exchange spurs common development of Belt and Road partners

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The inaugural Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange, the first of its kind for Belt and Road cooperation, has served as a boost for innovation-driven common development of partner countries.

China put forth an initiative on international cooperation in science and technology, featuring an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory environment, and proposed to jointly build a global community of science and technology, at the two-day meeting that ended Tuesday in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The event was attended by more than 800 officials, scholars and entrepreneurs from around the world.

The conference in Chongqing served as a practical step to promote the implementation of the outcomes reached at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing last month. Advancing scientific and technological innovation is one of the eight major steps China announced at the forum to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Innovation is a critical driving force for progress. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is dedicated to innovation-led development, embracing the opportunities emerging from digital, internet-based and smart development, new business forms, technologies and models, to find new sources of growth and propel transformative advancements for all involved.

There have already been practical results in BRI technological cooperation. For example, by the end of June 2023, China had signed intergovernmental agreements on scientific and technological cooperation with more than 80 BRI partner countries. China has helped partner countries build more than 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers and set up 50-plus BRI joint laboratories in fields such as agriculture, new energy, and health.

The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. Human society faces unprecedented challenges. Strengthening cooperation in scientific and technological innovation is the right way to jointly cope with global problems, and promote the common development, progress and well-being of humanity. Tech hegemony, knowledge blockades, and artificial widening of technological gaps are not in the interests of anyone and should be resolutely opposed.

A new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation is advancing by leaps and bounds, creating historic opportunities for human development. Following the first BRI conference on science and technology exchange, increasing institutionalized and concrete sci-tech cooperation will make the innovative Silk Road brim with vitality and bring more tangible benefits to people in partner countries.