Forum focuses on cutting-edge technology

Conference offers opportunities for scientific innovation, collaboration in various fields

Advanced technology and top scientific achievements are in the spotlight at the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference, which opened on Thursday in Beijing, attracting over 1,000 guests from more than 100 countries and regions.

The five-day event, also known as the ZGC Forum, features 128 activities in five major areas: forums, technology trade, achievements, innovation competitions and supporting events. This year's theme is "New Quality Productive Forces and Global Science and Technology Cooperation".

While addressing the forum's opening ceremony, Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing said that China is willing to work with other countries to explore new models of mutually beneficial and win-win sci-tech cooperation, in order to drive the development of new quality productive forces amid the deepening new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation.

The vice-premier also called for joint efforts to leverage sci-tech innovation to lead the development of new quality productive forces and address global challenges such as climate change.

"The forum is highly international, which is a great platform for global science and technology researchers to communicate their views and young technology company leaders to seek opportunities," said Suliman Almazroua, CEO of Saudi Arabia's National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, who attended the opening ceremony.

"I would use 'innovation through collaboration' to summarize this forum," he said. "There are people from various sectors, and we can find potential partners here."

Almazroua, who is in Beijing for the first time, said he is eager to see more at the event.

This year's conference places a strong emphasis on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, green development and basic research.

Sixty parallel forums will be held, with 20 initiatives launched for the first time, including the Open Science International Forum and the Ocean Science and Development Forum. More than 30 international organizations and institutions are co-hosting 18 events, with numerous leaders participating in discussions.

Ma Juan, CEO of Steinbeis Sustainable Technology and Management Beijing Co, noted that this year's forum focuses on cutting-edge technologies.

"In the past year, we selected 12 cutting-edge technologies among the 60 globally to cooperate deeply with local Beijing companies, which has promoted a local industrial upgrade," Ma said.

AI and humanoid robots are major highlights at this year's forum and have generated significant interest among the participants, who can encounter robots at the forum venue engaged in such activities as serving drinks, answering questions, delivering items and even writing calligraphy.

Nearly 100 robots from 15 companies are deployed at the site, according to the organizer.

"We aim to make the Zhongguancun Forum's annual meeting a grand stage for the concentrated display of new technologies, products and scenarios," said Jin Wei, vice-mayor of Beijing.

At the forum's opening ceremony, the National Natural Science Foundation of China released a list of the country's top 10 scientific advances of 2024. The list includes the Chang'e 6 mission's lunar samples, which revealed volcanic activity on the far side of the moon dating back 2.8 billion years, as well as the realization of intelligent reasoning and training using large-scale photonic computing chips.

The annual selection of China's top 10 scientific advances began in 2005, said Dou Xiankang, director of the foundation.

With an enduring focus on innovation and development, the forum, founded in 2007, has evolved into a national-level open innovation platform as well as an international forum.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn