President writes letter to high-tech zone gathering
President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter on Thursday to the 2019 Zhongguancun Forum, saying that China would like to actively cooperate in global innovation and share development achievements with the world.
In the letter, Xi said Beijing’s Zhongguancun area has been making efforts to become an advanced science and technology park as well as a world-leading center of innovation.
He urged participants to hold in-depth discussions and exchanges and promote consensus and cooperation so that science and technology innovation can better serve people from different countries and contribute to global technological development.
The forum was first held in 2007. This year’s forum is being held in Zhongguancun, a suburban area of the capital sometimes called “China’s Silicon Valley”. The event began 12 years ago with a commitment to promote innovation and development. Since then, it has become an open venue for scientific and technological experts from around the world to communicate and cooperate.
The 2019 forum — themed “Cutting-Edge Technologies and Future Industries” — began on Wednesday and ends on Friday. Around 1,200 business, financial and academic figures from 50 countries and regions — including the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, France and Japan — are in attendance.
A number of parallel sessions began on Wednesday, covering topics such as artificial intelligence, 5G, industrial internet, brain science, financial technology innovation and intellectual property protection.
The opening ceremony of the forum took place on Thursday morning.
Edvard Moser, a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist — who shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2014 with his then-wife, May-Britt Moser, and John O’Keefe — noted during the ceremony that China has experienced huge development in recent decades, especially in science and technology.
“There are two major reasons leading to those achievements,” Moser said. “First, China has attached huge importance to fundamental science research. Second, China has a very open attitude about communication with other countries in science and technology.”
Shing-Tung Yau, a US professor of mathematics at Harvard University, said that it’s essential to make considerable investment in fundamental science.
“Nowadays, the internet and computers have huge capabilities in various sectors, including energy allocation, big data and transportation, all of which require improving computing power,” Yau said.
An exhibition showcasing about 170 technology achievements was held during the forum. Among many high-tech products, visitors experienced the C919 flight simulator, a smart robot that can provide care for the elderly and robotic dolphins that can be used in water rescues.