Started in Beijing on November 14 and continued through the two stages in Nanking and Shanghai, the China-Italy Innovation Forum has been concluded successfully.
More than 100 representatives of research and business have taken part in the trading days inaugurated by the Italy-China bilateral summit with the presence of Ministers Maria Chiara Carrozza and Wan Gang, as well as the Città della Scienza’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Vincenzo Lipardi.
An occasion of great importance was the Workshop on Smart City, where Mauro Annunziato from ENEA and Lorenzo Benussi from ANCI Smart Cities Observatory introduced the Italian and European approach to smart cities. The most advanced Italian experiences were then described by the Mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano, the Councillor of Turin Enzo Lavolta, the head of the Smart City Project at the Municipality of Brescia, Nadia Busato.
In this context, Città della Scienza has signed an agreement with the Chinese city of Guiyang, to launch exchanges of experiences as well as the implementation of joint projects on smart cities. This activity will see Città della Scienza as a leader of a national team in partnership with ENEA, ANCI and the Italian cities participating in the forum.
For the first time in Forum’s history, a special session has been dedicated to Italian start-ups and spin-offs: 14 “young talents” have presented their skills and projects to an audience of investors and Chinese experts.
Scientific cooperation between Chinese and Italian excellences, the defense of intellectual property and other trade and manufacturing agreements are the themes of the 9 agreements signed in the opening ceremony of the China Innovation Forum Italy.
Added to this is the agreement signed at Nanking by Città della Scienza with the province of Jiangsu for the promotion of trade in innovative sectors, with a specific focus on Smart City. The Nanking context is of great interest for the Italian action, as pointed out by the Consul in Shanghai Vincenzo de Luca in the meeting with the leaders of the Italian delegation of Jiangsu Province, an area of high concentration of Italian investments in China, which can be a trailblazer for the action of the Italian innovative sectors in China.
Three agreements have been signed by the CNR-National Research Council: one between the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies of CNR and the Sichuan University; one between of the Research Institute for the Prevention of Mountain Disasters and the Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Research Institute for Hydrological and Geological Hazard Prevention of CNR; and finally an agreement signed between the Institute of Chemistry and Polymers Technology and Bolong in the field of green chemistry.
The Forum was also the occasion for the presentation of the Italian technological districts in China: two agreements have been signed in the field of new materials with the MAREA District and in the biotech field with the SORRISO District.
