On April 17th, 2008, the First Sino-New Zealand S&T Industrialization Symposium was held in Beijing. Over 200 Chinese and New Zealand government officials, scientific research personnel and entrepreneurs discussed the cooperation in the industrialization of scientific and technological research results in the areas of energy, environment, food science, health and biological technology and agriculture.

This was the first important exchange activity held by the science and technology circles of China and New Zealand after the conclusion of the free trade agreement between the two countries. The symposium aimed to promote the cooperation in the science and technology industrialization between China and New Zealand to improve the innovation capacities of the enterprises and build a platform for the enterprises and research institutions to carry out the cooperation in scientific and technological research result transformation. Vice Minister LIU Yanhua, MOST, P.R.C., and New Zealand’s Minister of Research, Science and Technology Pete Hodgson delivered keynote speeches respectively on the opening ceremony of the Symposium.