The 3rd National Conference on S&T Aid to Tibet, organized by MOST and the People’s Government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), was held on August 6 in Lhasa. VIPs present at the conference included Qiangba Puncog, Vice Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of TAR, ZHANG Laiwu, Vice Minister of MOST, and WU Yingjie, Executive Vice Chairman of TAR. ZHANG and WU addressed the event. Over 170 participants from the S&T administrations at provincial level (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), research institutes, institutions of higher learning, and enterprises attended the conference.

During his speech, VM ZHANG underlined that in order to better aid Tibet through S&T, a new assistance mechanism should be established for win-win benefits by broadening the assistance channels with innovation. Efforts should be stepped up to facilitate S&T aid to Tibet, and local characteristics and demands should be taken into account so as to strengthen regional innovation system. The relationship between overall development and the highlight of priorities, short-term and long-term goals, outside aid and Tibet’s self-reliance should be properly handled.  Greater efforts should be made to implement the policies in order to assure effective outcomes.

Relevant provinces, cities, and enterprises signed 48 such agreements during the meeting, pledging 27.6 million RMB in aid. Representatives from Shanghai, Tianjin and Tibet, enterprises, research institutes and universities like the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, PetroChina Co. Ltd, Northwest A&F University, and Northeast Agricultural University, exchanged their experiences in this regard.