Young people embrace science and technology at Hangzhou innovation conference

Young people at the second 2050 Conference 2019 participate in a discussion session in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on April 26. [Photo/Xinhua]

The conference also saw a group of techies from over 10 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative share stories and seek business cooperation opportunities.

"In my hometown, it's difficult to find clean drinking water because of the lack of production equipment. When I was in college, the government gave me a $4 living allowance per day, a quarter of which was used to buy clean drinking water," said Michael from Tanzania.

To make water more affordable for college students in Tanzania, Michael, together with two classmates, opened a drinking water company after graduation and imported water purification equipment. As a result, over 3,000 students in local universities saw an 80 percent decrease in the cost of drinking water.

With the expansion of the company, Michael hopes to find partners to develop a more advanced drinking water management system.

Hangzhou is home to many of China's leading internet companies, including Alibaba and NetEase.