China Science and Technology Exchange Center, at the invitation of the Foundation of Research & Technology-Hellas (FORTH), attended the 5th INCO Conference in Greece on June 1. This conference discussed how to strengthen global cooperation on S&T to deal with global issues since the initiation of Horizon 2020 of European Union. Over 100 representatives from more than 20 countries attended this meeting and experts from different countries made speeches and discussions on the S&T development prospect and the importance of international S&T cooperation. During the last session, DDG Xing Jijun, on behalf of China National Contact Point (NCP), sent invitations to all representatives and hoped that they could come to China next year for the 6th INCO Conference with “Joint Innovation, Common Prosperity” as its theme.
From June 3 to 7, the CSTEC delegation visited Fraunhofer’s production equipment, IPK, and IVI in Berlin, Germany. At IPK, the director of the Department of Cooperation and Management presented in detail the benchmarking system and the concept of “industry 4.0” promoted by BMBF and BMWI. The “industry 4.0” strategy aims to constantly improve Germany’s global competence under the prerequisite of keeping domestic manufacturing development, so as to take the upper hand in the new round of industrial revolution. This concept was characterized by focusing on intelligent manufacturing and has been widely accepted by German research institutes and the industrial world. Fraunhofer Society has introduced the “industry 4.0” concept into 6 to 7 research institutes of its subsidiary production field. At IVI, Director Matthias Klingner introduced to the delegation the research and development projects on transportation management and electric vehicles and displayed the longest electric bus in the world developed by its institute, the innovative charge mode and the unique steering control system. The delegation visited two IVI trial shops and test sites.
During the communication, both sides expressed their willingness to conduct cooperation with Chinese institutes through CSTEC in relevant fields.
During the stay in Germany, the delegation also paid a visit to German Federal Ministry of Transportation and Digital Infrastructure including Achim Wehrmann, Deputy Director of Shipping, Dr. Hinricher, Director of General Affairs, and Dr. Veit Steinle, Director of Policy Management. The two sides conducted thorough exchanges on shipping environmental protection (shore power technology), electric vehicles development, and logistics. The German side showed strong interest in the electric vehicles of China and hoped for exchanges and cooperation on China’s relevant activities through the platform of CSTEC.
The above-mentioned visiting activities in Germany were supported by the science and technology section of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, and representatives from this section accompanied all these activities.