The 2009 International Conference for Bio-economy closed its curtain at the Binhai International Conference & Exhibition Centre on June 28.Nearly 1000 new biological achievements were displayed and a contracted sum of 2.05 billion yuan was reached.

The biennial BioEconomy Conference, initiated and sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology and the Tianjin Municipal Government, provides an opportunity for biotech professionals, government officials, business leaders and others from around the world to exchange advanced knowledge and experiences in the research and application of biotechnology.

This year the conference was aimed at tackling the financial crisis with the development of bio-economy. “At present, the biggest problem for China’s medicine industry is difficulties brought by financial crisis. The country will continue to boost the medicine industry by stimulating the biological industry”, Sang Guowei, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said at the conference.

The Medicine Exhibition and Biotechnology Exhibition held at the conference attracted over1200 enterprises and over 80,000 visitors from home and abroad.

The exhibition saw some 1500 exhibition booths on display and covered an area of 40,000m2, the largest and most reputable platform for biotechnology and new drugs in China.

It also provided a platform for marketing, networking, strategic partnership and information exchange by organizing BioPartnering China, aimed at making it easy for life-science companies to meet their Chinese counterparts in a professional and organized atmosphere and New Drugs Trade Fair.

At the conference, 64 enterprises and institutes reached agreements on 108 projects concerning applying biological research results.

By Guo Changdong