Guangxi has been fully embracing its leading and exemplary role in regional innovation and speeding up the integrated development of China-ASEAN regional innovation throughout the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), said Cao Kunhua, director of the Guangxi Science and Technology Bureau and deputy to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional People's Congress, on Jan 21.

The fourth session of the 13th Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional People's Congress was commenced in Nanning the same day.

Cao said that Guangxi has now established intergovernmental bilateral technology transfer working mechanisms with nine ASEAN countries, and has joint working groups on technology transfer with seven ASEAN countries. A related network has been built and has grown to 2,400 members, covering all 10 ASEAN countries and several countries along the Belt and Road.

Agricultural technologies are a key point of cooperation. Cao said that the region has established 12 industrial parks featuring agricultural technologies, including the Sino-Thai traditional medicine research center and the Sino-Malaysia joint laboratory on the application of Beidou, the navigation satellite system developed by China. These are helping promote China's advantages in production capacity abroad while boosting local technology and economic development.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the Guangxi Science and Technology Bureau launched a series of initiatives such as building international joint laboratories and conducting global cooperation to develop and promote a batch of key generic technical projects.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the region has launched a special project of international cooperation, aimed at carrying out research in using traditional medicine to fight against the pandemic.

Cao added that Guangxi will further develop new means of technological cooperation and achieve better outcomes in areas spanning establishing mechanisms for international science and technological cooperation, boosting transnational technology transfer and transformation, as well as clustering innovative resources, bringing more benefits to the people of China and ASEAN countries.