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China-Czech Science and Technology Cooperation and Exchange Meeting Held in Prague

On November 24, 2017, the China-Czech Science and Technology Cooperation and Exchange Meeting was held in the Chinese Embassy in Czech. This is a high-level event on science and technology exchange jointly held by both sides. Vice Minister Li Meng of the Ministry of Science and Technology led a delegation to the event and delivered a keynote speech. Chinese Ambassador in Czech Ma Keqing, Assistant Deputy Prime Minister of the Office of the Government of Czech, Deputy Minister Plaga of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Deputy Minister Novotný of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vice President Řídký of the Czech Academy of Sciences and other Czech government officials attended and addressed the meeting.
In his keynote speech, Vice Minister Li Meng pointed out that in the report to the recently held 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping put innovation on the top of the five development concepts and explicitly called for implementing an innovation-driven development strategy and stepping up efforts to build China into an innovative country. In the past five years, China has accomplished fruitful achievements in building itself into an innovative country, produced a number of world-class basic research results, built a number of high-end, large-scale, systemic mega-science infrastructure, fostered a number of hi-tech enterprises and industries, and cultivated a group of world-class leading scientists and engineers.     
Vice Minister Li Meng also said that China is comprehensively strengthening international cooperation in science and technology innovation and regards Czech as an important partner. Cooperation in science and technology between China and Czech enjoys high complementarity, solid foundation, full vitality and practical outcomes. The Chinese side fully affirms the results of China-Czech cooperation in science and technology. Vice Minister Li Meng offered three suggestions for future cooperation: 1. seize the opportunity of the Belt and Road and deepen bilateral cooperation in science and technology innovation; 2. continue to promote joint R&D cooperation; and 3. fully tap the potential of cooperation in technology transfer and transformation. Continuous research personnel exchanges and cooperation in science and technology between the two countries over the years have further consolidated bilateral cooperation in science and technology. In the future, Czech will become one of the most important science and technology partners of China in Central and Eastern Europe. The implementation of the Belt and Road Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan will provide new opportunities for bilateral cooperation in science and technology between the two countries. 
More than 80 delegates attended and addressed the meeting. They included representatives of the Office of the Government of Czech, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Technology Agency of Czech, the Czech Science Foundation, the Czech Science and Technology Association and other government administrative departments for science and technology, as well as representatives of Czech Technical University, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, International Clinical Research Center of St. Anne‘s University Hospital Brno and other relevant research institutions, universities and enterprises which have undertaken China-Czech science and technology cooperation projects. Delegates shared their experience of cooperation, explored on future cooperation opportunities, and visited the Exhibition of China-Czech Science and Technology Cooperation Achievements & China Science and Technology Innovation Achievements Since the 18th Party Congress.    

Before the meeting, Vice Minister Li Meng held bilateral talks with Deputy Minister Robert Plaga of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Both sides spoke highly of the important guiding role of the China-Czech Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation in science and technology innovation cooperation between the two countries and said that they will continue to push forward the implementation of the personnel exchange program, expand the scale of joint research and development projects, take the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the “16+1 Cooperation” Mechanism as an opportunity to build joint laboratories, joint R&D centers and other long-term cooperation platforms.   
After the meeting, the Chinese delegation visited Czech Technical University and held discussions with university officials. The delegation also visited the Czech Technical University-CRRC Joint Research and Development Center.