Greater efforts urged on sci-tech cooperation

Visitors interact with a humanoid robot at the opening of the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing on Thursday. The forum is scheduled to run through Monday. [Photo by WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY]

Greater efforts are needed to strengthen international cooperation in science and technology, explore ways of jointly solving important global issues through technological innovation, and develop new quality productive forces, said officials, experts and company executives on Thursday in Beijing.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum, Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang said that China is willing to work with the international community to practice the concept of open, fair, just and nondiscriminatory international science and technology cooperation, and to jointly build a global sci-tech community.

The country will explore a new model regarding mutually beneficial global cooperation in sci-tech innovation, and will break down barriers restricting the flow of knowledge, technology, talent and other innovative factors, in order to jointly create an open innovation ecosystem.

Ding also emphasized the significance of jointly cultivating and developing new quality productive forces, while calling for efforts to expand cooperation in fields such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, green energy and advanced manufacturing, as well as strengthen international cooperation on the digital economy.

Yin Li, secretary of the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee, said the capital will ramp up efforts to improve its innovation capacities, accelerate the building of world-leading science and technology parks, increase investment in basic research and make breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields.

Data from the Ministry of Science and Technology showed that China's research and development investment exceeded 3.3 trillion yuan ($455.4 billion) in 2023, up 8.1 percent year-on-year, and the spending on fundamental research reached 221.2 billion yuan, an increase of 9.3 percent over the previous year.

China's strength in scientific and technological innovation has taken a major leap in recent years. Marco Aleman, assistant director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said China is a powerhouse of innovation that contributes to global growth and sustainable development.

According to the WIPO, the country stands as a global innovation leader, ranking 12th in the Global Innovation Index 2023, and it owned 24 of the top 100 science and technology clusters globally by the end of last year, ranking first in the world for the first time.

Aleman said China also retains its top position in international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which is one of the widely used metrics for measuring innovative activity.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, president of the World Academy of Sciences, said ensuring a sustainable future through partnership and cooperation creates an opportunity for all participants to explore new pathways toward achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Highlighting that the development of new quality productive forces mainly relies on technological innovation, Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Chinese tech company Xiaomi Corp, said at the forum that the company will continue to step up investment in R&D and strive for breakthroughs in core technologies.

According to Lei, Xiaomi plans to invest more than 100 billion yuan in R&D over the next five years as part of its broader push to strengthen core competitiveness.

He said the company has invested heavily in intelligent manufacturing, with robotics and automated technologies applied to production lines, adding that Xiaomi aims to seize the opportunities in the smart electric vehicle sector through launching its first EV sedan.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Group, said the artificial intelligence-powered large language model, which is regarded as a key part of new quality productive forces, will lead to a new round of industrial revolution.

Zhou said that large language models are expected to be used in a wider range of scenarios and fields this year to bolster industrial transformation and upgrading.