Li Xi, Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, attended the conference and delivered a speech.

Li said, to promote innovation in sci-tech, Guangdong should develop its core technology and further cooperate with Hong Kong, Macao to integrate into a ‘global network of innovation’. The Pearl River Delta must coordinate its development with eastern, western and northern Guangdong.

Li stressed that the province should promote the construction of the International Sci-tech Innovation Center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Some important tasks include the construction of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Sci-tech Innovation Corridor, building a world-class technological infrastructure cluster, promoting high-level cooperation in production, education and research, introducing and training more innovative talent, etc.

At the conference, winners of the 2018 Guangdong Science and Technology Award were announced by Huang Ningsheng, Director of the United Front Work Department of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee.

The projects receiving the award have led to significant social and economic benefits, Huang said. According to statistics, tech projects receiving the award brought new sales revenue amounting to 168.2 billion yuan, and drive profits up to 29.3 billion yuan.

With increasing sci-tech cooperation in Greater Bay Area, the region has seen a large number of scientific and technological achievements. Many of the projects receiving awards, involved Hong Kong and Macao institutions such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University and the City University of Hong Kong.

Sun Yat-sen University and the Hong Kong Baptist University presented a joint project focusing on ‘Visual robust feature extraction and nonlinear analysis’. Mainly used for facial recognition, the project received the first prize in the Natural Science category.

Five individuals were given awards for international scientific cooperation and scientific cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area including Korzhyk Volodymyr, a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and Martin Menzies, Professor at the Royal Holloway College, University of London.

Reported by Will

Edited by Olivia, Simon