This photo taken on September 9 shows the venue of the 2026 China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation Conference. (Xinhua)
Ningbo, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — (Reporters: Fang Wenyu, Xu Shunda). Co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Ministry of Economy of Slovakia, the 2026 China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation Conference opened on September 9 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. The conference released the 10-Year Report on China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation, witnessed the collective signing of 11 agreements on industry-university-research cooperation and platform co-construction, and put forward the China-CEEC Vision for Innovation Cooperation 2030.
Themed "A Decade of Innovation, Building a Shared Future", the three-day event will be held successively in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province and Nanjing of Jiangsu Province. Around 450 participants attended the conference, including officials from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and local governments; officials in charge of science and technology from CEEC countries; CEEC diplomats in China; as well as experts, scholars and young sci-tech talent representatives from Chinese and foreign universities, research institutes, tech enterprises and sci-tech service institutions.
The conference features an opening ceremony and plenary session, a ministerial meeting on sci-tech innovation, thematic forums covering artificial intelligence and robotics, biotechnology, green energy, and supporting activities including the CEEC Innovation Tour in China and the Think Tank Roundtable on Innovation Cooperation.
During the opening ceremony, the 2026 China (City)-CEEC Open Innovation Cooperation Index and the 10-Year Report on China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation were released. The 2nd China-CEEC Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was launched, and 11 agreements on industry-university-research cooperation and platform co-construction were signed collectively.
At the China-CEEC Ministerial Meeting on Sci-Tech Innovation held on the same day, senior representatives from all countries conducted in-depth exchanges on tapping new opportunities for cooperation in key fields and deepening sci-tech innovation cooperation, and proposed the China-CEEC Vision for Innovation Cooperation 2030.
Representatives from many CEEC countries including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia attended the conference and expressed positive expectations for further deepening cooperation with China.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation Conference. As a flagship sci-tech event under the China-CEEC Cooperation framework, the conference was inaugurated in 2016 and has held five successful sessions in China, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and other places. It has vigorously promoted policy dialogue, joint research, personnel exchanges, technological cooperation and industry-university-research docking.