Industry expo highlights sector's achievements, massive deals

The 21st China International Software Expo was important for Beijing - a leading city in the national software industry - to establish itself as a globally influential scientific and technological innovation center, local officials said.

The expo kicked off on June 29 and ended on July 1 in Beijing, welcoming more than 60,000 visitors and offering an exhibition area of 20,000 square meters. Companies displayed more than 2,000 products and technologies at the event.

The event has become an important platform for showcasing achievements in Chinese software, supporting the Made in China and Internet Plus strategies.

Chen Jining, acting mayor of Beijing, said at this year's expo: "The capital will nurture a more open attitude to gather global intellectuals, improve the city's innovation environment, and support advanced software companies and organizations to develop there."

Yin Hejun, deputy mayor of Beijing, said it is necessary to make the best use of the expo to foster innovative sectors, including software and information services, and make Beijing a new engine to lead the world's innovation.

The exhibitions involved display halls of the sector's achievements. The sub-forums covered fields such as intellectual manufacturing, information security, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and software transaction.

The expo's online software deal service platform was launched on June 7 and by July 1, the trade volume exceeded 5 billion yuan ($749.5 million).

The platform integrates resources including supply information from companies that attended exhibitions at the expo and updated news of the expo.

The platform was a highlight of the expo, according to the event's organizing committee. It released trading results in real time and software demand information from visitors.

As the main platform for displaying trading at the 2017 expo, it also provided a 200-square-meter display area in the Beijing Exhibition Center, where the expo was hosted. The area sent people to collect consultancy and deal information from different exhibition halls and showcased the transaction results on the screen.

A software carnival at the expo attracted 30,000 visitors and more than 300 companies attended exhibitions at the carnival.

Interaction activities also took place during the carnival. One allowed young people to learn about the construction of smart robots and how to adjust open source hardware to make the robots walk.

At a summit forum focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative, Zhu Wan, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, noted China's software business revenue has increased from 58.6 billion yuan in 2000 to 4.9 trillion yuan in 2016, indicating the software industry has entered into a rapid growth period.

Zhu said: "There are expectations the sector will play a more important role in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative."

Gao Fei, assistant president of China Foreign Af airs University, said software, one of the most active and innovative industries in China, is capable of playing a great role in the Belt and Road Initiative's top-level design.

(China Daily 08/28/2017 page5)