Guangxi leads way for ASEAN cooperation and pandemic response

To support the Belt and Road Initiative and promote scientific and technological cooperation with ASEAN countries, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has opened up various channels and achieved fruitful results.

The region has built an all-around scientific and technological cooperation platform to help develop a China-ASEAN innovation community. It has established intergovernmental bilateral technology transfer working mechanisms with nine ASEAN countries and joint working groups on technology transfer with seven ASEAN countries. A related network was built and has grown to 2,400 members. The region has successfully held the Exhibition on Advanced Technologies of the China-ASEAN Expo for 16 consecutive years and also the Forum on China-ASEAN Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation for seven years in a row.

Since 2013, more than 80 matchmaking sessions on technology have been organized for ASEAN countries. Over 4,500 projects and 7,400 enterprises have taken part in the events, and more than 560 cooperation agreements have been signed.

The agreements have led to the ASEAN countries' application of advanced and practical technological achievements in the fields of modern agriculture, new energy, traditional medicine, food processing, electronic information and chemical industry, local officials said.

The eighth Forum on China-ASEAN Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation is scheduled in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, from Nov 26 to 30.

The opening ceremony, main forum, 10 plus 3 Young Scientists Forum and two matchmaking sessions will be broadcast live simultaneously on the forum's website and on China.com's Facebook page.

A technology transfer center and an industrial park in Bangkok, Thailand, which will be China's first offshore innovation incubator in ASEAN countries, is to be unveiled during an online forum.

With powerful resources in high-level technology, Guangxi has set up more than 20 joint laboratories and innovation centers across nine ASEAN countries. A host of universities, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, China University of Mining and Technology and Wuhan University have signed cooperation agreements with Guangxi for scientific and technological research, personnel training and technology demonstration projects.

To find solutions to regional issues, Guangxi has joined forces with institutions in other countries. It has collaborated with nearly 20 nations including Vietnam, Cambodia, France and Germany to carry out global karst research.

Thanks to collaborative efforts, the International Research Centre on Karst under the auspices of UNESCO was successfully set up in Guilin, Guangxi. Guangxi has also jointly cultivated new agricultural varieties and developed rice planting and processing technologies with relevant scientific research institutions and enterprises across 10 ASEAN countries, local officials said. Guangxi has contributed to building 12 agricultural science and technology parks in ASEAN countries.

By recruiting researchers from ASEAN countries, Guangxi has attracted a number of promising young scientists who work in fields such as electronic information, biomedicine, medical equipment, environmental protection, space science and oceanography as well as modern agriculture and forestry.

Guangxi has organized or co-organized international scientific and technological communication activities. The region has invited more than 500 foreign experts and scholars to Guangxi and sent over 300 scholars to 35 countries and regions to study.

When ASEAN countries were dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic figuring out ways to overcome it, Guangxi launched a group of international cooperation projects with them. The science department of Guangxi has convened groups from the Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Mahidol University in Thailand, National University of Singapore, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai University of Science and Technology to carry out drug development and research.