On July 5, Deputy Director-General ZHANG Zhihong of Hi-tech Development and Industrialization received a delegation from the Canadian Embassy in China, including Counselor Pierre Pyun, Senior S&T Policy Consultant Allen Chong and Commercial Officer JIN Yi.

Mr. Pyun briefed the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS) in Canada and expressed wishes to enhance ITS cooperation with China through joint R&D under the existing framework. He also pointed out that Canadian companies were small compared to the huge ITS market and asked for MOST’s suggestion on promoting R&D collaboration.

ZHANG introduced MOST’s role in the national R&D on ITS as well as the preparation for the 14^th World Congress on ITS. He said that the problems of traffic jams and lack of transport dynamics in China’s large cities could be solved by improved technology, management and infrastructure. Canada took a leading role in this area and both sides looked forward to real cooperation.