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High-Tech Smorgasbord Thinking the Future in Beijing

Though the Ninth China Beijing International High-tech Expo (CHITEC) was deliberately scaled down from previous expos, its quality was excellent.

More than 18,000 people participated in the May 23–27, 2006, CHITEC, and their 60,000-square-metres of exhibits, products and specialized information attracted more than 230,000 visitors–most of them to the China International Exhibition Centre–who viewed and explored the latest in high-tech equipment and business strategies.

Sources said CHITEC achieved its goals of "establishing a platform, bringing business opportunities together, discussing development and promoting cooperation."

Beijing's top high-tech-oriented exhibition is a grand international gathering attended by leading governmental, non-governmental, business, academic and industrial leaders who are encouraged to focus on the strategic requirements of scientific and sustainable development processes, to unveil and discuss the latest in high-tech achievements from around the world, to relate their findings in specific ways to economic and social problems of the day, and to distribute contemporary ideas and concepts about the economic era of today's global community.

The ninth CHITEC included hundreds of activities including exhibitions, forums, conferences and negotiations on economic and trade projects. Seventy-five delegations sent by international organizations, foreign governments, financial and investment institutions and enterprises from 35 countries and regions as well as foreign scientific, technological and commercial missions stationed in China–more than 3,000 overseas alone–attended the expo, including Nobel laureates, famous scientists, entrepreneurs, financiers, economists. Thirty-one provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities from China and the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions met at CHITEC, joining in its activities.

High-echelon Forums

Convergence and communications of forward-looking innovative ideas

Ten forums and specialized conferences directly addressed hot topics in China's socio-economic development, especially its high-tech industrial development. People who attended the conferences said the meetings were marked by a convergence in thinking and in the communication of forward-looking, innovative ideas from 323 speakers from home and abroad. These included renowned experts and scholars, Nobel laureates, leading personnel in frontier disciplines of study, executives of world-famous transnational corporations and finance and investment institutions, as well as authoritative personnel from various governments. They covered such heated issues as trends in the world and Chinese economies, sustainable development of the Chinese economy, the recycling economy, financial reform and capital markets, energy strategies, transportation science and technologies, regional economic cooperation, strategies concerning intellectual property rights, development of software industries, and the prevention and mitigation of hazards in cities.

Exhibitions

Most advanced sci-tech products shown

About 2,048 high-tech enterprises displayed their most advanced products, such as technology and equipment that could be used in the "Digital Olympics," or that for environmental protection, energy savings, new-materials technologies, auto science and technologies, the recycling economy and renewable energy, information safety and storage, and automobile electronics.

Negotiations

Linking up cooperative projects in high-tech industries

The ten sessions of scientific, technological, economic and trade talks focused on nearly 10,000 projects, including the Olympic economy, projects of various provinces and municipalities open to foreign and domestic investment, overseas market opportunities, investment, trade and others. They provided high-tech and related circles both from home and abroad with multi-tiered opportunities from multiple domains of commercial cooperation, having attracted more than 10,000 Chinese and foreign businessmen from dozens of countries and all China to conduct negotiations.