By Deng Wentao, iChongqing news

Chongqing- Chongqing located in the heart of mainland China has road, rail, and waterways connecting the city’s commerce to the rest of the world. Recently the city also hosted the 2nd Annual Smart China Expo, connecting international tech companies, organizations and thought leaders around the future, cooperation, and progress of the tech industry.

The Smart China Expo, which ran from August 26-29, held in Yuelai District in Chongqing was free and open to the public, attracting 837 thousand visitors, a 300 thousand increase from last year. As a technology expo, it focused on all of the trappings of tech including big data, AI, smart manufacturing, 5G technology, smart technology, etc.

Smart China Expo 2019 was free and open to the public, attracting 837 thousand visitors, a 300 thousand increase from last year.

At the opening ceremony leadership from of some of China’s top companies Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu, remarked at the opportunities of the expo and of Chongqing city, praising the city’s forward-looking perspective and calling it the “city of opportunity.”

Yang Yuanqing, the chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group said the expo, China and the countries in attendance are exemplary of future opportunities in the field. “China will use a new generation of artificial intelligence to drive the development of science and technology, industrial optimization and upgrading, as well as overall productivity improvement.” Moreover, Yang stated that the data provided by these industries will serve as “a basic resource and an innovation engine, to accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading, and make innovative breakthroughs in core technologies through the industrial internet and intelligence.”

Yang Yuanqing, the chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group said the expo, China and the countries in attendance are exemplary of future opportunities in the field, the image is Xian Tao Big Data Valley Experience Center

Conferences like the expo are important to bringing the businesses of China and the rest of the world together, a meeting spot to share ideas and discover mutual business endeavors. In attendance were academics, heads of international companies and organizations, and more than 800 enterprises representing more than 50 countries. More than 350 VIP guests from a wide range of fields in the tech industry attended the expo, an increase of more than 250 compared with last years’ roster.

Conferences like the expo are important to bringing the businesses of China and the rest of the world together, a meeting spot to share ideas and discover mutual business endeavors

According to the expo's website "The aim of the Expo" is to “enhance international exchanges and cooperation on big data and smart technology, and promote the cyber development strategy to speed up digital application and smart technology in China.” Pony Ma Huateng, the chairman and CEO of Tencent offered an example of how a lack of international cooperation might limit the global community’s future progress. “5G is not a single technique, but a series of technological innovations requiring combined efforts to succeed. No country in the world today can fully possess all the needed resources, technologies, and capabilities for a new round of technology and industrial development. Industrial fragmentation and technology decoupling will hurt the long-term interests of mankind.”  While industry fragmentation might hinder progress finding the right venue for cooperation is also key said, Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Baidu, “We should take full advantage of open source and open platforms, especially the latter, which play important roles in artificial intelligence development… Open source does not mean that everything is free, independent and [un]controllable. We need to have a full understanding that many open source technologies are still owned by others.”

According to Pony Ma, 5G is not a single technique, but a series of technological innovations requiring combined efforts to succeed

During the expo, 530 projects and partnerships were signed with an investment of around 816 billion RMB or 115 billion USD. The expo also served as the release venue for more than 20 new products and technologies.

The Expo was organized by the PRC Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Association for Science and Technology, as well as the CQ Municipal People’s Government.