Beijing holds news conference highlighting latest scientific efforts

Beijing will continue boosting its fundamental science and research strength in a bid to speed up its capacity in original innovation, Vice-Mayor Jin Wei said in a news conference on Saturday.

"Leveraging its strength in education and human resources basis, the city will continue enhancing its role as international science and innovation center and give priority to basic research," he said.

He highlighted that Beijing is addressing key core technology issues from the ground up, focusing on becoming a major source of independent innovation and a primary hub for original innovation in China.

The city places great importance on strengthening the systematic layout of strategic scientific and technological capabilities, he noted.

According to statistics, the city boasts 145 national key laboratories — accounting for nearly 30 percent of the country's total — and has established more than 400 city-level key laboratories, as well as 10 new research and development institutions in cutting-edge fields such as quantum information.

The Huairou Science City — one of the most densely packed areas for major scientific infrastructure in China — further underscores this commitment.

Beijing is also enhancing a diversified investment mechanism for basic research, with the intensity of R&D investment across society consistently maintained at over 6 percent of its overall social spendings for many years.

Currently, the proportion of investment in basic research in Beijing remains around 16 percent of its entire research spending.

"I have been in Beijing for two and half years, and I have been trying to understand how Beijing could see such a great development pace in its industry," Nelson Pancici de Sa, a journalist from Brazil media group UOL, said. "I think Beijing boasts strong technological development from its universities."

From Friday to Saturday, he and a group of foreign journalists visited Beijing E-Town and Changping district, which boasts a concentration of leading AI and robotics companies.

Ananth Krishnan, a journalist from The Hindu, asked the vice mayor about Beijing's policies to attract talent and how the city commercialized the fruits of its research into industrial growth.

Representing the vice-mayor, Yang Xiuling, director of the Beijing's Commission of Development and Reform responded: "The city offers preferential policies to lure global elites and to strongly support local companies' engagement in scientific research with prestigious universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University."