On April 24, 2021, the “Scientific and Technological Innovation Underpinning Rural Revitalization - Rural Planning and Smart Agriculture Cooperation and Exchange Partnering Meeting” (hereinafter referred to as the “Meeting”) was held during the 19th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals. The Meeting was attended by Jiang Danping, Deputy-Director of Department of Rural Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, Li Xin, Deputy-Director of Department of Foreign Expert Services, Deng Xiaoming, Director of China Rural Technology Development Center, Xia Bing, Vice Director of China Association for International Exchange of Personnel, Chen Weirong, Deputy Director-General of Science and Technology Department of Jiangxi Province, Yang Xiaoping, Director of Jiangsu Provincial Bureau for Foreign Experts Affairs, Qiu Xuan, Member of the Party Leadership Group of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission and Level I Inspector, Fu Gangzhan, President of China Prospect Program Shanghai Promotion Center, Jeon Hee, Agricultural Research Officer of Rural Development Administration National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Petri Mikael Rinne, former President of European LEADER Association for Rural Development and Chairman of Village Action Association of Finland and other guests.
Themed by the “Scientific and Technological Innovation Underpinning Rural Revitalization”, the Meeting was held both online and offline simultaneously centering on the subjects of rural planning and smart agriculture, in which experts and scholars from home and abroad were invited to share their experience and ideas; expert organizations, experts and technology holders from countries like Japan, South Korea, Russia, Italy, Finland, South Africa, and other regions including Taiwan were invited to introduce their areas of expertise and advantageous resources, promote cooperation projects, and make preliminary contact with Chinese participating enterprises and institutions.
In his speech, Deputy-Director Jiang Danping said that as China has entered a new stage of making comprehensive advancement of rural revitalization and speeding up the modernization of agriculture and the countryside, more than ever, committing to a people-centered approach to build rural areas with “thriving businesses, pleasant living environments, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and prosperity” needed solutions by scientific and technological innovation. At present, the Ministry of Science and Technology was making active and concerted efforts to the support the rural revitalization by scientific and technological innovation during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period More efforts would be devoted to make better top-down design and map out the overall plan for development direction and key tasks of smart agriculture and digital countryside, village construction and ecological livability; focus would become more centered upon the priorities and joint research and design with relevant departments to put forward the key special projects in the field of agriculture and countryside during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period; exchange platforms such as Conference on International Exchange of Professionals and cooperation exchange partnering meeting would be given full play to, and agricultural science and technology parks, agricultural high-tech industry demonstration zones, innovative counties and cities would be an effective means to explore the path of international cooperation in agricultural science and technology, promote the demonstration and promotion of agricultural science and technology innovation and commercialization of results, and deepen exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world.
In the keynote speech session, Director Deng Xiaoming talked about his thoughts on how to do a good job in supporting the rural revitalization through science and technology innovation. He pointed out that rural revitalization was a long-term, arduous task and China must rely on science and technology innovation. During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the significant achievements and experience accumulated in the development of agricultural and rural science and technology laid a solid foundation and provided favorable conditions for innovation-driven rural revitalization. However, there were still shortcomings in China’s agricultural science and technology innovation, including scattered innovation elements and weak awareness of openness and collaboration, calling for coordinating more forces to boost rural revitalization with scientific and technological innovation. Innovation-driven development was no longer a solo project of the science and technology sector, but required more systematic forces from both individuals and market players under the framework of concerted efforts and joint management and well-defined power and responsibility by focusing on the main body to make overall advancement. In the face of challenges, innovation resources should be gathered and poured to lower tier towns and villages. Equal attention should be paid to both scientific and technological innovation and the commercialization of results to make an open and collaborative innovation system as a powerful helper to achieve tangible results in agricultural science and technology innovation at the grassroots level. The “14th Five-Year Plan” has inaugurated a new historical process in rural revitalization. Scientific and technological innovation were strategic sources of boosting rural revitalization and high-quality agricultural and countryside development while emphasizing two connections in fostering new driving force for the rural revitalization, deepening the construction of open and collaborative innovation system, accelerating the internationalization of agricultural science and technology innovation, and guiding all kinds of innovation subjects and innovation resources into the main battlefield of rural revitalization to build a new development pattern of agricultural science and technology.
Afterwards, Jeon Hee, Petri Mikael Rinne and Fu Gangzhan, shared their insights into rural planning, smart agriculture and international cooperation cases of rural revitalization. Thirteen guests from Fujimi Education Exchange Center, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Rural Development Administration, South Korea-China Association for Cultural and Economic Exchange, Village Action Association of Finland, Peter the Great Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University, Italy Rural Development Network, Gold Yard International Exchange Service, National Taiwan University, Cross-Strait New Rural Development and Environmental Protection and Technology Exchange Association, and Asian Alliance of Local Creative Students presented their projects on the themes of rural planning and smart agriculture.
The Meeting was concluded with presentation by Vice Director Xia Bing. He said that China's scientific and technological self-reliance and openness and cooperation were not antagonistic, but formed a relationship of dialectical unity. China’s innovative development could not be separated from the world, and the world had an increasing need for China’s scientific and technological progress. Especially on agriculture, an issue concerning the basic survival of all human beings, China stood ready to strengthen international scientific and technological cooperation in the field of agricultural and countryside development and join hands with all parties to address this major global challenge in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win results. The meeting aims to build mutual trust among the participants through communication, and on the basis of mutual trust, integrate their advantages and resources to form a synergy for practical cooperation, jointly promote agricultural and countryside development and deliver fruits and dividends of scientific and technological innovation to more people. The 20-year-old Conference on International Exchange of Professionals is an exposition and trade fair for international cooperation on scientific and technological innovation and international talent exchange, as well as an important platform and well-known brand gathering global innovation resources. Serving agricultural and countryside development has always been one of the important purposes of the conference. Going forward, by highlighting the role of scientific and technological innovation in underpinning rural revitalization, the conference will give full play to the advantages of the conference as an international platform, integrate high-quality resources from all parties in the field of agricultural and countryside development, promote the exchange and sharing of advanced experiences and ideas, carry out cooperation and trade of projects, technologies and products so as to foster new impetus for rural revitalization and agricultural and countryside development.