2023 Hangzhou International Talent Exchange and Project Cooperation Conference Kicked Off

On the morning of the November 12, 2023 Hangzhou International Talent Exchange and Project Cooperation Conference kicked off. The theme of the conference is “openness, cooperation, innovation and entrepreneurship.” Through deeply studying and implementing the important thoughts of General Secretary Xi Jinping on doing a good job in talent work in the new era and the spirit of his important speech during his visit to Zhejiang, focusing on high-quality development, and taking advantage of the Asian Games, the conference focused on attracting young talents from all over the world and expanding the open exchanges of the field of talent development, to help Zhejiang to become the highland of science and innovation for all kinds of talents and strive to be at the forefront of shaping new advantages in development with science and technology innovation.

Ding Zhongli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic League of China and president of the Western Returned Scholars Association, made a video speech. Wang Hao, deputy secretary of the provincial Party committee and governor of the province, announced the opening of the conference. Liu Jie, deputy secretary of the provincial Party committee and secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, made a speech.

Ding Zhongli pointed out that in the new era, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core takes the work of providing good services for those studying abroad as an important task of the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country with science and education, the strategy of empowering the country with talents, and the strategy of driving development with innovation, to accelerate the building of attractive and internationally competitive talent systems, so that those studying abroad can give full play to their talent when returning to the motherland and contribute more effectively to the development of the motherland when settling down abroad. The strategy of empowering the province with talents is an important part of the “Double Eight Development Strategy”. Over the past 20 years, the successive provincial governments of Zhejiang have been adhering to the “Double Eight Development Strategy” as the general program and deeply implementing the prioritized strategy of empowering the province with scientific and technological innovations and talents to enable the vast number of talents including overseas students to show their talents and build their careers in Zhejiang. The purpose of the Hangzhou International Talent Exchange and Project Cooperation Conference co-organized by the Western Returned Scholars Association and Zhejiang Province and the China International Students’ Forum co-organized by Hangzhou Municipality is to further strengthen the cooperation and two-way empowerment, so as to effectively put into practice the important requirements of “Gathering talents from all over the world and accumulating creative power” of General Secretary Xi Jinping. Ding expressed his hope that the majority of overseas students will study and implement the spirit of the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, take Zhejiang as an important practice place to understand the world and national conditions and carry forward the tradition of serving the country by studying abroad, and further understand Zhejiang and contribute to Zhejiang, so as to gather the wisdom of the Western Returned Scholars Association and overseas students for the purpose of building a demonstration zone of common prosperity in Zhejiang and creating an important window to comprehensively demonstrate the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics for the new era.

Liu Jie said that Zhejiang will deeply study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech during his visit to Zhejiang, vigorously implement action of forging ahead by integrating science, education and talents, continue to build high-capacity platform matrices, the optimal innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and one-stop service systems, to build a broad stage for the world’s talents to realize their ambitions, provide sunshine and rain for them to thrive, and solve the worries for them to take root in Hangzhou. Liu hoped that all experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs can take the conference as an opportunity to deepen exchanges and cooperation in Hangzhou and promote the implementation of more talent projects. Liu also expected more outstanding talents at home and abroad to pay attention to Hangzhou and start up in Hangzhou to create a better future.

Provincial and municipal leaders Wang Cheng, Zhang Yanyun, Li Huolin, and Ma Weiguang, chairman of China International Talent Exchange and Development Research Association, Zhang Jianguo, and those in charge of the Western Returned Scholars Association, Shi Yigong, Li Lin, and Li Min, attended the opening ceremony. Yao Gaoyuan chaired the conference. Academician Christo Rolfstedt, Chief Scientist of Synthetic Biology of Xianghu Laboratory, spoke as a talent guest.

This conference was hosted by the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, and the Western Returned Scholars Association, and organized by the Organization Department of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Zhejiang Province, the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Committee, and the Hangzhou Municipal People’s Government. The opening ceremony released the results of the 2022 themed activity of “Charming China---Most Attractive Chinese Cities in the Eyes of Foreign Talents”. Hangzhou has been on the list for the 13th consecutive year. Hangzhou also launched the “Green Lotus Program” to attract and gather young talents from all over the world, and started more than 50 series of activities for overseas talents.