CAST holds meeting to promote integration of science and technology with economy

Putting in place President Xi Jinping's instructions on coordinating epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) held a meeting to promote integration of science and technology with the economy on April 16, 2020.

Focusing on CAST's brand program of "Technological Innovation China", the meeting aims to coordinate the implementation of CAST's major work to fulfill the annual tasks relating to the integration in accordance with changing circumstances.

Huai Jinpeng, executive vice president and chief executive secretary of CAST, chaired the meeting.

Meng Qinghai, vice president and executive secretary of CAST, Shu Wei and Song Jun, both executive secretaries of CAST, and Lyu Zhaoping, member of the Leading Party Members' Group of CAST, also attended the meeting.

The meeting heard and discussed work reports on how to implement the annual action plan and how to strengthen grassroots organizations. And the participants shared the research updates on the technology transfer systems in other countries and discussed how to contribute to building an international technology promotion system.

China's economic and social development is now facing a double challenge of fighting the COVID-19 epidemic and transforming and upgrading its industries, and to support the development with a focus on raising productivity and lowering transaction cost is therefore the most important task for CAST organizations at the present time, Huai noted in his speech.

To build a platform for providing technology and talent services under the Technological Innovation China brand, Huai urged efforts in three respects: (1) CAST must make breakthroughs to the existing organizational mechanism and cooperate with local governments and communities with shared interests. The advantages of CAST member societies in uniting talents and providing technological services must be fully leveraged. Through opening gate to cooperation, a national network for Technological Innovation China should be built up. (2) CAST must build a unified platform that has Technological Innovation China as the primary part and links local governments, enterprises and societies. By providing both online and offline services, a platform economy with lower transaction cost will be achieved. (3) CAST should plan to establish a special fund to promote the integration of technology with economy, facilitating the platform’s function as a good matchmaker for technology transactions and application. In the course of the efforts, we should study the experiences of Japan and other countries.

Huai required that science and technology associations at different levels must build integrated innovation platforms and collaborative innovation networks and make innovations to governance mechanisms. In doing this, they must bring into full play their advantages in uniting scientists, promoting multi-disciplinary collaboration, linking local resources seamlessly and cooperating with international organizations. They must follow an input-driven approach, enforce control over critical points and appraise performance at important stages. National societies and local science and technology associations must be fully mobilized to deliver solid results.

Officials of relevant departments and directly affiliated institutions of CAST also attended the meeting.