China and Europe on Science Innovation Cooperation

The 4th Asia-Europe Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Forum and the 10th Europe Forum of Federation of Chinese Professional Associations in Europe (FCPAE) is taking place in Helsinki this week, which shows again that Finland is a place where innovation and inclusiveness are highly valued.

The Government of China attaches importance to innovation. Its 13th Five-year Plan puts forward development ideas of innovation, coordination, green, opening up and sharing, with innovation in the core of overall development. On 17 September, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the World Conference on Science Literacy 2018, pointing it out that science and technology constitute a primary productive force. At present, a new round of science revolution is rising and it is deeply influencing world’s development pattern as well as the way of production and living. Closer coordination on innovation of all circles in science industry and society, and opening and cooperation of all countries are approaches to let science play a bigger role for the progress of human society.

Europe is a place with strong innovative powers. In 2018 Global Innovation Index released by WIPO, European countries take up eight places of the top 10, with Finland in the 7th. China and Europe are highly complementary in science innovation cooperation and share a broad prospect in fields of industry-academia research collaboration, joint research and transformation of achievements.

China values cooperation on science and research innovation with EU members. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signature of the China-EU Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. Science cooperation between China and EU evolves in areas of science governance system, cooperation pattern and financing, from science exchange to innovative research. Cooperation on science and innovation becomes a crucial and indispensable part in China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

On 16 July, 2018, during the 20th China-EU Summit, both sides issued a Joint Statement that reaffirmed their commitment to build an open global economy, opposed protectionism and unilateralism and firmly supported the rule-based multilateral trade system with WTO at its core. It is of great significance that China and Europe jointly issued this positive signal. Currently, conflicts caused by protectionism and unilateralism echo one after another. Trade bullying seriously threatens the global free trade system and the rule-based international order, hampering the stability and recovery of world’s economy. At the crucial moment, strengthening cooperation between China and Europe is conducive to collaboration of the two major powers, markets and civilizations. And it helps both economies to complement each other and make the best of their respective strengths, serving the peoples for better lives. Moreover, by making concerted efforts to take a clear-cut stand on free trade and investment facilitation, China and Europe will pour strong positive energies into today’s world economy, which is threatened by a trade war.

This year also marks the 5th Anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. In the past 5 years, BRI has injected new impetus to China-Europe cooperation and promoted effective work in areas of connectivity, research innovation, education, culture, trade, investment and infrastructure construction. It proves that in the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration with related countries, the initiative meets the needs of global governance reform, shows the idea of shared destiny that we stick together in times of difficulty, making new contributions to improve global governance.

Notes: The writer is the Ambassador of People Republic of China to Finland.