2-day forum to replace this year's World Internet Conference

An Internet Development Forum will be held online and offline from Nov 23 to 24 in Wuzhen, a water township in East China's Zhejiang province, organizers said on Monday.

Considering the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, "we changed this year's World Internet Conference to a two-day forum and also adjusted numbers of guests and activities in Wuzhen," said Zhao Zeliang, vice-minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the nation's top internet regulator.

"We'll make full use of internet technologies this time to provide people who cannot come to Wuzhen with new and concise activities, helping them enjoy online participation at the same time," he added.

Themed "Digital Empowerment Creates a Better Tomorrow: Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace", the upcoming event will have a main forum on Nov 23 and five sub-forums, including those on youth in the digital era and artificial intelligence, on Nov 24, according to a statement provided by the organizers.

The main forum is expected to set up agendas centering on "Digital Economy and Science-based Prevention and Control Measures in Response to COVID-19" to respond to concerns from the international community, it said.

This year, the organizers will continue to release some internet-related reports, such as the China Internet Development Report 2020, the World Internet Development Report 2020 and Wuzhen Outlook 2020, it said.

These documents, which show achievements in internet development, will focus more on the pandemic. For example, the Wuzhen Outlook 2020 will address the global fight against the outbreak and concentrate on building a community with a shared future in cyberspace, it added.

"We'll strictly implement measures of preventing the outbreak to offer a safe and efficient forum for the public," Zhao said.