The Second China-Central & Eastern European Conference on Innovation Cooperation was held in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia from November 27 to 29, 2017. This is a concrete measure to implement the 2016 Riga Guidelines for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. Vice Minister Li Meng of the Ministry of Science and Technology led a delegation to attend the Forum and made a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. Attending the event were Minister Lubyová of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of Slovakia, Minister without portfolio Popovic for innovation and technology development of Serbia, Director Pálinkás of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary, State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of Slovakia, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia and almost 200 delegates from Central and Eastern European countries and representatives of entrepreneurs and research institutions.
In his keynote speech, Vice Minister Li Meng made an introduction to China’s science and technology innovation policies and international cooperation in relation to the spirit of the 19th Party Congress. He pointed out that the Chinese government is firmly implementing an innovation-driven development strategy and accelerating efforts to build China into an innovative country. China takes innovation as the No.1 driving force for development, strengthens basic research, applied basic research and national innovation system building, and encourages more social entities to devote themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship. Vice Minister Li Meng stressed that China’s science and technology innovation is open and the innovation policy is inclusive. He noted that with the maturing of the“16 + 1”science and technology innovation cooperation mechanism, all parties should seize the opportunity to further boost close people-to-people exchanges in the field of science and technology, support cooperation in joint research and development projects and establish long-term cooperation platforms.          
In their respective speeches, Minister Lubyová, State Secretary Parízek and Minister Popovic all spoke highly of the cooperation in science and technology innovation between China and Central and Eastern European countries and looked forward to more cooperation achievements in research, international technology transfer and other fields. Vice Minister Li Meng and Minister Lubyová also jointly launched the Virtual China-CEEC Technology Transfer Center website.

After the opening ceremony, Vice Minister Li Meng held a pragmatic bilateral meeting with Minister Lubyová. Both sides said that they are willing to strengthen the top-level design of intergovernmental cooperation in science and technology innovation cooperation between China and Slovakia under the guidance of the China-Slovakia Committee on Intergovernmental Cooperation in Science and Technology, promote people-to-people exchanges in science and technology between the two countries, push forward cooperation in joint research and development and achieve more substantive cooperation results. After the meeting, the two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People‘s Republic of China and the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of Slovakia on Jointly Sponsoring China-Slovakia Research Cooperation Projects. The Memorandum of Understanding was included in the list of the results of the Sixth Summit of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European Countries held in Budapest on November 27, 2017. 
On the afternoon of November 27, 2017, Vice Minister Li Meng visited Comenius University in Bratislava and VFL Tech Company. During his visit to Comenius University in Bratislava, Rector Mičieta, Vice-Rector for Research Moczo and some deans and departmental chairs introduced the Comenius University Science Park Project and the University’s teaching and research system and structure to Vice Minister Li Meng and expressed the hope of further deepening research cooperation with Chinese universities. Vice Minister Li Meng said that with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Jointly Sponsoring China-Slovakia Research Cooperation Projects between the two countries, China and Slovakia will jointly provide more funds support for researchers in both countries. He hoped that Comenius University in Bratislava could actively participate in the joint research projects between the two countries and work with its Chinese counterparts to raise the level of bilateral cooperation in research. In his visit to VFL Tech, Vice Minister Li Meng listened to the introduction made by the head of the company to its sewage treatment technology and its cooperation in China. Vice Minister Li Meng said that the technology has broad market prospects in China and encouraged the company to seize the opportunity of China-Slovakia cooperation in research and deepen its technology R&D cooperation with Chinese enterprises. 
During his visit, the delegation led by Vice Minister Li Meng also met with Minister without portfolio Popovic for innovation and technology development of Serbia. Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia Lin Lin accompanied Vice Minister Li Meng in the events.  
Xinhua News Agency, News Agency of the Slovak Republic, SME Online, topky.sk, Telegrafska Agencija Nove Jugoslavije, Politika and Radio Television of Vojvodina reported in the above events.