International guests, who are in Beijing to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), were delighted by service delivered by a robot barista at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a grand banquet to welcome the guests at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday evening.
In the VIP lounge at the Great Hall of the People, an intelligent robot barista proved a hit with some of the African leaders.
"Incredible, I can't believe it," said President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa as he watched the robot adroitly making coffee.
The robot's agility also amazed Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera and Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly who all sipped coffee made by their robot server.
Scheduled to take place from Wednesday to Friday, the FOCAC summit is the largest diplomatic event hosted by China in recent years, with the highest attendance of foreign leaders.
Themed "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future," the three-day event aims to strengthen friendships and outline future cooperation between the two sides.
FOCAC guests enjoy coffee made by robot barista
More measures will be rolled out to cultivate more unicorn enterprises in China, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Wang Jiangping said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.
Unicorn enterprises, as representatives of the new economy, business forms, and models, have emerged as a driving force behind the advancement of new quality productive forces, Wang said. And the number of unicorn enterprises in China has steadily increased in recent years, with their comprehensive capabilities significantly strengthened, leading to the emergence of numerous super unicorn enterprises, he said.
"Unicorn enterprises in sectors including high-end manufacturing, consumption, retail, high and new technology account for over 78 percent of the total. Among those that newly emerged last year, more than half are from hard and core technology fields of new energy, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors," Wang said.
"In the next step, our ministry will establish a unified national system to cultivate unicorn enterprises with cooperation between the ministry and provinces, supporting unicorn enterprises in technological innovation, encouraging and guiding them to pursue technological breakthroughs aligned with the country's strategic needs and acquire more unique know-hows. Efforts will be made to boost financial support for unicorn enterprises, leveraging industrial and financial cooperation platforms to assist their listing, merging, and reorganization. Forward-looking plans will also be made for future industries, focusing on new areas and arenas such as atomic-class manufacturing, brain-computer interface (BCI), and 6G, to promote the growth and expansion of unicorn enterprises. Efforts will be made to integrate unicorn enterprises into the global innovation network and carry out innovation cooperation," he said.
In response to issues such as insufficient orders reported by certain enterprises, Wang said in the fourth quarter, the ministry will collaborate with relevant departments to introduce another set of measures aimed at boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand, assisting enterprises in expanding their markets and unleashing vitality.
"We will focus on leveraging the impact of investment to carry out technology transformation and upgrades, as well as equipment upgrading. We will organize a series of actions centered around expanding consumption, optimizing the supply and promoting upgrades, to advance application scenarios to foster the growth and expansion of new high-quality productive forces, such as the low-altitude economy and smart manufacturing," Wang said.
China to foster more unicorn enterprises: official
