（Photo by Liu Daming/MOSTIC）

On May 14, 2018, Zhang Jianguo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, met with the visiting German delegation headed by Steffen Bilger, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Transport. He looked back on the developments of China-Germany cooperation in science and technology in recent years, briefed the German side on the development of science and technology and new energy vehicles in China, and exchanged views on topics of common interest.

Vice Minister Zhang Jianguo welcomed the German delegation to MOST and talked about important plans for science and innovation made at the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, especially the four major measures which Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at this year‘s Boao Forum for Asia to expand opening-up to the outside world, stressing that China will strengthen open cooperation in innovation.

Vice Minister Zhang Jianguo pointed out that science and technology is fundamental to the establishment and expansion of China-Germany relations. The China-Germany intergovernmental agreement on science and technology cooperation signed in 1978 unveiled comprehensive cooperation in science and technology, and promoted the all-round, multi-level and sustained development of science and technology relations between the two countries. When talking about new energy vehicles in China, Vice Minister Zhang Jianguo pointed out that electric, intelligent, networked and lightweight new energy vehicles will become the trend. The Chinese government will pay more attention to industry, technology and policy innovations, push forward the high-quality development of new energy vehicles. He made three specific suggestions for China-Germany innovation cooperation in the field of new energy vehicles. 

Vice Minister Zhang Jianguo introduced to the German side China’s latest measures to attract foreign talents and wisdom to China, and recognized the positive role of intellectual expert exchanges between the two sides in promoting bilateral cooperation in science and technology innovation through substantive examples. He said that the Ministry of Science and Technology will continue to encourage the exchanges of technical personnel between the two countries and provide more convenience and support for experts of the two countries to make mutual visits. 

State Secretary Bilger highly appreciated the commitment of the Chinese government to expanding its opening-up and briefed the Chinese host on Germany’s ideas and goals for developing new energy vehicles. He said that the German side is willing to work with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology to further expand China-Germany cooperation in the field of new energy vehicles, promote bilateral cooperation in R&D and industrialization, and effectively serve social and economic progress in the two countries. 

Present at the meeting were Deputy Director-General Xu Chaoqian of the Department of High-tech Development and Industrialization and Minister-Counsellor Zheng Shimin of the Department of International Cooperation of MOST.