On December 7, 2020, Technology Transfer Seminar for Sustainable Development in the “Belt and Road” Countries, co-hosted by The Administrative Center for China’s Agenda 21, Centre for South South Cooperation in Technology Transfer, China-South Asia Technology Transfer Center (CSTTC) and Yunnan Academy of Scientific and Technical Information (YASTI), was successfully held in Kunming. With the aim of taking the initiative to serve and integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative, and further promoting technology transfer and innovation cooperation between China and the “Belt and Road” Countries, it gathered nearly 30 industry experts in China, which including representatives from Beijing Normal University (BNU), Yunnan Academy of Scientific and Technical Information (YASTI), China-ASEAN Innovation Center (CAIC), School of Engineering, China Agricultural University (CAU), Centre for South-South Cooperation in Technology Transfer and relevant enterprises in Yunnan. The contents of the seminar include the construction of innovation cooperation platform, demonstration project and the mechanism model, and how to deepen and expand areas of cooperation, how to realize sustainable development for technology transfer in these countries etc.

Dr. MA Minxiang, Director-General of YASTI, mainly introduced the practices and achievements of Yunnan in recent years in carrying out international scientific and technological cooperation and technology transfer in South and Southeast Asia countries based on CSTTC and CAIC, and then shared the experiences on how to further play the role of these international scientific and technological cooperation platforms.

Mr. ZHOU Yuguang, Associate Professor of CAU, introduced their works for China-Ghana/Zambia renewable energy cooperation project, China-Ethiopia/Sri Lanka renewable energy technology transfer cooperation project, bio-energy exchange platform and renewable energy technology exchanges and cooperation with developing countries, and shared his thoughts of international scientific and technological cooperation on technology of clean gas utilization, test methods and design of agricultural waste biomass stoves. 

Mr. SHI Minwei, Project Manager of Centre for South-South Cooperation in Technology Transfer, also shared their functions, working patterns, achievements and progress of China-Ghana/Zambia renewable energy cooperation project and China-Ethiopia/Sri Lanka renewable energy technology transfer cooperation project.

As the representative of Yunnan energy enterprises, Mr. FU Dingwen, Executive Deputy Director of China-Laos Solar Energy Science and Technology Cooperation Center/Chairman of Yunnan Crystal Energy Company, shared his hands-on experiences in carrying out demonstration projects in India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and other South and Southeast Asian countries from the practical level.

Mr. ZHANG Jiutian, Executive Director of Green Development Institute of BNU summed up the meeting. He believed that the current situation of international scientific and technological cooperation and technology transfer has undergone great changes, and the uncertainty of poses great challenges to our current work. Therefore, it is necessary to find out ways and directions of international scientific and technological cooperation and technology transfer under this new situation.

Despite the severe changes in international situations, all attendees of this seminar agreed that there are still new opportunities for technology transfer within the “Belt and Road” Countries. What we need to do is to adjust our ideas with new situation and requirement, to create new cooperation modalities and to pay close attention to the actual needs of these countries. In order to promote and guarantee the sustainable development of the international scientific and technological cooperation and technology transfer work, we should regard the enterprises as the main body, take the transfer and transformation of results as the goal and be oriented by market demand. We need to extend cooperation to institutions and enterprises, and stimulate the vitality of our cooperation platforms and related enterprises. In conclusion, all attendees agreed that to further strengthen collaborative cooperation with each other and jointly contribute to the high-quality development of technology transfer work in the “Belt and Road” Countries. The seminar successfully achieved the expected goals.