China, Germany pledge closer innovative alliance

China is ready to forge a closer innovative partnership with Germany, Prime Minister Li Keqiang said in a meeting here. Li made the remarks at a bilateral forum on innovation cooperation on Thursday, also attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Xinhua news agency reported. Calling China and Germany a golden pair of innovation cooperation, Li said such a partnership has put a high-powered engine to China-Germany pragmatic cooperation.

In 2014, the two countries launched a joint action plan themed "shaping innovation together", which set a precedent for science and technological cooperation between major countries, said Li.

During the past three years, solid steps have been taken in bilateral innovation cooperation, namely the alignment between "Made in China 2025" plan and Germany's Industry 4.0 concept, the successful cooperation model of the Research Funding 2+2, and the rapid development of various China-Germany industrial parks.

Unveiled in May 2015, the "Made in China 2025" plan helps transform China from a manufacturing giant into an innovation-motivated manufacturer.

Industry 4.0, a concept coined by the German federal government in 2011, aims to facilitate automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, including cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and cloud computing.

Next month, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Germany and attend the G20 Summit in Hamburg, said Li, calling on the two sides to maintain close high-level exchanges, cement political mutual trust, speed up the synergy of their development strategies, and launch more demonstrative programmes.