On May 13, 2017, Minister Wan Gang met with the delegation led by Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang introduced the Outline of the National Long- and Medium-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development (2006-2020) and the 13th Five-Year Plan on International Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Cooperation and explained the Special Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation in connection with the Belt and Road Initiative, expressing the hope of giving full scope to the role of STI in leading and supporting development, promoting world economic growth and deepening regional cooperation, and approaching and driving innovation from a global perspective for the benefit of countries and peoples.

Professor Schwab fully recognized China’s Belt and Road Initiative and STI achievements, and made two suggestions regarding future cooperation: 1) The WEF has established the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco, USA, and he proposed co-establishing the WEF Center for Innovation with the Ministry of Science and Technology as a counterpart of the former, where WEF and Chinese institutes and experts engage in joint research projects; and 2) The WEF is preparing the Center for Internet Security as a platform which brings together international companies and governments for communication and cooperation on internet security and he asked the Ministry of Science and Technology for support.

Wan expressed interest in Professor Schwab’s suggestions of cooperation and looked forward to working with the WEF Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, noting that China has made a lot of progress in key areas including drone, precision medicine, artificial intelligence and gene editing. He added that internet security is a direction of the ministry’s strategic plans and that, and as the internet has become a key medium of resource sharing and cross-sector cooperation in China under the drive of the Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative put forward by Premier Li Keqiang, protecting internet security is protecting the security of those who share the resources. The two sides also reached consensus on young entrepreneurs engaging in global science, technology and innovation and resource sharing at the Summer Davos Forum.

This meeting was one of MOST’s bilateral meetings during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The meeting was also attended by Xu Jing, Director General of the Department of Innovation and Development, Ye Dongbai, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, and Hu Zhijian, President of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED).