There was an opening ceremony, at Beijing's International Hotel Convention Center, on Sept 25, for the Zhongguancun Forum for 2014, with Xu Guanhua, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former minister of science and technology hosting the ceremony and making the opening remarks.

Wu Jinglian, Researcher of Development Research Center of the State Council, speaks at the openning ceremony of 2014 Zhongguancun Forum, at Beijing's International Hotel Convention Center, Sept 25, Beijing. [Photo by Fang Sha/chinadaily.com.cn]

This forum, whose theme is "Ecosystem Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Cooperating and winning", with the focus on getting governments, enterprises, research institutes and organizations to cooperate effectively in innovation and industrial development and sponsorship from the Science and Technology Ministry, Chinese Academy of Science, Chinese Academy of Engineering, State Intellectual Property Office, and Beijing Municipal Government.

The openning ceremony of 2014 Zhongguancun Forum, at Beijing's International Hotel Convention Center, Sept 25, Beijing. [Photo by Fang Sha/chinadaily.com.cn]

The registration desk of the openning ceremony of 2014 Zhongguancun Forum, at Beijing's International Hotel Convention Center, Sept 25, Beijing. [Photo by Fang Sha/chinadaily.com.cn]

Chen Qingtai, a former Party Secretary and vice-minister of the State Council Development Research Center, addressed the gathering by speaking about the shift to innovation-driven development, and the renowned economist Wu Jinglian spoke on how to build an efficient national innovation system.

They were followed by Del Christensen, chief of Global Business Development, the American Bay Area Council, discussed the conditions for an innovation ecosystem in California's Silicon Valley, and called the "Open Model" (or free flow of thought) the most successful method to establish global innovation. Other guests included Allen Wu, president of ARM Greater China, and Karin Finkelston, vice-president of the World Bank's International Finance Corp for Asia Pacific, who also spoke on establishing an open innovation ecosystem.

There were also four sub-forums on "Big Data Figures New Life", "Internet Financing: Integration and Development", "Boundless Entrepreneurship, Cross-border Acceleration" and "International Eco-environment and Energy Technology Transfer", in the afternoon.

Participants at the data session discussed the influence of big data applications on the development of the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region, speeding up smart city construction work and governance, and the way Chinese enterprises use Big Data to promote sustainable development.

Around a dozen representatives of top Chinese and global Internet and traditional finance institutions and emerging Internet companies were invited to the Internet financing forum to discuss the chances and challenges of Internet financing, product and marketing strategies of Internet financiers, innovative supervision, how to get Internet financing involved in micro-to-small enterprise development, and the 2015 forecast for Internet financing markets.

The technology transfer forum attracted dozens of representatives from Chinese and foreign enterprises and local science parks with their technology projects, with keynote talks by David Conover, head of New York's Stony Brook University Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, and Jurgen Bremer, CEO of Germany's SBC Investment Group.

Enterprises from the United States, Germany, the UK and South Korea held technology exchanges and project talks with people from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, with the idea of integrating global innovation resources, pushing Zhongguancun's enterprises into international cooperation, and transforming traditional Chinese industries through international technology transfers.

There was also the publication of the 2014 Zhongguancun Index, which shows total income of top new technology industries exceeding 3 trillion yuan and income and profits growing year-on-year well above 20 percent, which plays a significant role in Beijing's transformations, structural adjustments, a high-grade, high-precision, advanced economy and the establishment of innovative national strategies. And, the key words for Zhongguancun's innovative development in 2013 are integration, openness, vigor and high-level.