Southwest China's Chongqing municipality and Sichuan province signed a framework agreement on April 14 to enhance cooperation on scientific and technological innovation.
The agreement will allow Chongqing and Sichuan's Chengdu to promote the co-establishment of a regional science and technology innovation platform, resource sharing, project construction, policies sharing, and achievement sharing, bolstering scientific and technological innovation with national influence.
Chongqing and Chengdu aims to establish national technological innovation policies, national major technological infrastructures and frontier science centers, as well as attract national institutions like the China Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering to set up branches.
Relying on one science city and various industrial parks, Chongqing and Chengdu will establish associations of high-tech zones, university science parks, technological innovation bases, international science and technology cooperation bases, as well as mass innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration bases.
To achieve breakthrough in key technologies, such as information technology, artificial intelligence, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, automobiles and motorcycles, instruments, biomedicine, modern agriculture, environment, new energy, as well as new materials, Chongqing and Chengdu will establish research cooperation mechanisms and coordinate funds to provide support.
In addition to bringing scientific research results from the labs to the market, Chongqing and Chengdu will support regional development in neighboring cities, as well as cooperate with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
To further optimize their innovation environment, Chongqing and Chengdu will launch talent attraction policies that provide convenience for high-end talents working in both Chongqing and Chengdu.
John Edwards, the UK trade commissioner for China, praised Chongqing over its rise as a burgeoning center in intelligent manufacturing.