Shanghai to foster open and innovative ecosystem

Shanghai will spare no efforts to foster an open and innovative ecosystem to pursue its modernization drive and boost high-quality development, said the city's Party Secretary Chen Jining on Wednesday in a meeting via video link with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"As the frontier of China's reform and opening-up and a cosmopolitan city with deep links to the world, Shanghai is speeding up its modernization and continuously improving the quality of people's lives with higher-quality development," said Chen.

He said Shanghai and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation share similar concepts and goals in promoting people's health and well-being and sustainable development, hoping both sides can further strengthen communication and promote cooperation.

By integrating the foundation's strengths with Shanghai's advantages in openness, clinical strengths, scientific and technological innovation, Chen expects more and solid bilateral collaboration in fields such as science and technology, life and health, public health and rural vitalization.

"We will make every effort to create an open innovation ecosystem, and actively build a regulatory system compatible with the high level of openness and technological updates, in a bid to provide better services and environment for various institutions' innovation and development in Shanghai," Chen added.

Introducing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's future plans in China, Gates noted that the foundation is committed to bringing global innovations to China and vice versa, aiming to better address global challenges.

Shanghai boasts abundant innovation resources, intensive activities and opportunities. The foundation is looking to work with global partners here to deepen cooperation and jointly push forward the development in various areas such as life and health, drug research and development, agriculture and environmental health, Gates added.