Minister Wan Gang attended the opening ceremony of the 7th China-Italy Innovation & Cooperation Week in Naples, Italy on October 27th, 2016. Minister Wan and Ms. Stefania Giannini, the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research, delivered keynote speeches. Representatives from both countries included Li Ruiyu, Chinese Ambassador to Italy, Yan Aoshuang, Director of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, and Luigi de Magistris, Mayor of Naples.
In his speech, Wan said that strengthening bilateral cooperation in science, technology and innovation and leveraging respective edges in talent, capital and technology are the two countries’ shared desire to address practical concerns and a strategic choice to win the future. After six years of continued development, the platform of China-Italy innovation cooperation has set an example as the best-developed and most productive mechanism of innovation cooperation between China and the EU, and it will have enormous potential for further growth.
Ms. Giannini said that the history of scientific and cultural exchanges between China and Italy dates back to as far as 1,000 years ago. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Italian priest Matteo Ricci traveled thousands of miles to China and brought western science and technology to the country. In 1978 Chinese and Italian governments signed an agreement on cooperation in science and technology. After decades of joint efforts, the two countries have expanded cooperation in science, technology and innovation and reaped huge benefits. Italy will implement forward-looking strategic development plans and hopes to leverage its S&T edges and work together with China to overcome global challenges.
At the opening ceremony, eight Chinese scientists and innovators were honored with the Award of China-Italy Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation in recognition of their outstanding contribution in advancing bilateral cooperation. After the award ceremony, institutions signed a raft of pacts, including the agreement on China-Italy technology transfer center, the agreement on innovation and entrepreneurship alliance, the China-Italy agreement on traditional Chinese medicine center, and an MOU on strategic cooperation in intelligent manufacturing.
Created six years ago, the China-Italy Innovation & Cooperation Week has been held alternately in the two countries every year, and has developed into an important platform to mobilize resources of science, technology and innovation. With the theme of joining hands for innovation and win-win results, the 7th Innovation Week highlighted key technologies and core resources. It attracted over 530 Chinese representatives and more than 1,000 Italian representatives. They held 25 parallel sessions in such fields as intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine, energy conservation & environmental protection, aviation & aerospace, agriculture & food safety, healthcare, smart life, green chemistry, traditional Chinese medicine and LED technology. The representatives held over 500 project talks and reached some 100 intents of cooperation.
