At the invitation of Anja Karliczek, German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang attended the 47th Carnegie Group Meeting of Science Ministers held in Dresden on October 11, 2019. At the meeting, Minister Wang Zhigang briefed on China’s scientific and technological advances and efficient and coordinated national innovation system, emphasizing that the country will more actively integrate into the global innovation network.
The three-day meeting was attended by science ministers or government science advisers of Germany, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The meeting focused on sharing recent scientific and technological progress in various countries and discussed various topics, including tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a one-health approach through improved global coordination of R&D; promoting reciprocity and integrity in international science and technology cooperation; and adopting a harmonized approach to Open Science.
In his keynote speech, Minister Wang Zhigang stated that President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government attach great importance to the development of science, technology and innovation, giving it top priority in overall national development with an aim to build China into an innovation country through the innovation-driven development strategy. According to Minister Wang Zhigang, China‘s gross domestic expenditure on R&D approached RMB2 trillion in 2018, accounting for 2.19% of its GDP, up by 11.8% over the previous year; there were a total of 4.19 million FTE R&D personnel, ranking first in the world; China came second in the world in terms of total numbers of scientific papers published internationally and its citation counts; and the country topped the world in terms of numbers of invention patent applications and grants. Minister Wang Zhigang remarked that China’s science and technology strength and innovation capability have seen significant improvement.
In addition, China will continue to strengthen science and technology talent training and fully implement a work permit system and a visa system for foreign talents. Minister Wang Zhigang especially stressed that common prosperity is of primary importance and that China will, as always, following the principle of open cooperation and win-win results, work with various countries to promote the common prosperity and development of the world by more actively integrating into the global innovation network and contributing more“Chinese wisdom”.
During the meeting, Minister Wang Zhigang held bilateral talks with Anja Karliczek, German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Blade Nzimande, South African Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Takahiro Ueyama, executive member of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation under the Japanese Cabinet Office, and Grigory Trubnikov, Russian First Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, as well as bilateral exchanges with heads of delegations of other countries.
