The 2026 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) Annual Conference opened in Beijing on Wednesday, attracting over 1,000 guests from more than 100 countries and regions worldwide to explore how cutting-edge technologies are being adopted across various sectors and increasingly interwoven at the industrial level.
Themed "Full Integration Between Technological and Industrial Innovation," the forum will run until Sunday, with the event highlighting the current wave of sci-tech innovations and focusing on frontier fields such as 6G, brain-computer interfaces, and cell and gene therapies.
The forum's opening ceremony saw the release of the "Top Ten Scientific Advances in China for 2025" and the "National Innovation Index Report", shining a spotlight on the latest breakthroughs which are having a transformative effect across several industries.
At the main venue, high-tech products, including AI glasses capable of translating over 140 languages and robots of various sizes and functions are among the many captivating items on display.
As guests mingled on the opening day, many visitors were impressed by the human-like dexterity of a robotic hand, and enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee served up by a robotic barista.
"It's a surprise how smart the fingers of this robot can take the cups and fill into another cup. And it was very interesting for me," said a visitor from Germany.
This year's forum features more than 100 events divided into five sessions, including a series of meetings, outcomes, technology transactions, competitions, and other supportive activities. It will also host 60 parallel forums focused on groundbreaking areas such as 6G and brain-computer interfaces, along with over 20 technology matchmaking events.
"So there's a lot more different subject matter conferences this year, you can see that China is strategizing in energy, in bio, in materials and automotive. So you're seeing a lot more conferences and talks around that, which is really interesting," said Nathan McNally, a British entrepreneur and co-Founder of the P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator.
Zhongguancun Forum shines spotlight on technology, industrial innovation
Zhongguancun Forum shines spotlight on technology, industrial innovation
Esko Aho, former Finnish prime minister, has stressed the importance of mutual understanding and cooperation between Asia and Europe, values he said underpin the importance of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2026.
In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Esko Aho, who was in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, for the BFA annual conference, emphasized the need for greater understanding between Asia and Europe as the two continents pursue closer economic and political ties.
"I think when looking at Europe and Asia, there are a lot of similarities. We are technology-oriented. We have a lot of common interests to keep world trade to be fair and open. But then we also have differences. It's very important that Asia understands European minds and vice versa. For us, it's very important to understand the Asian minds in order to do good business, or to be good in politics, you have to be able to recognize these differences," he said.
On the role that Finland and the Nordic region can play in building up that understanding, he emphasized their predisposition to trust.
"The level of trust is very high in all Nordic countries. That is something which is making a difference in Europe, but I can say that even globally, it's very difficult to identify any other part of the globe where a level of trust between people is so high as it is in the Nordic region," he said.
Founded in 2001, the BFA has grown into a key platform for addressing Asian issues and strengthening cooperation both within the region and globally.
Aho described the forum as a window for the world to better understand China and a platform for exchanging views on global trends, adding that such dialogue helps foster cooperation and the development of common rules.
"It has been a window to see what's going on in China. For foreigners, it's a great opportunity to understand internal processes in China. This is a place for dialogue, so that we foreigners, we feel that when we are coming here, we are able to tell from our perspective, how do we see the world's global trends and developments. And in that way, let's say, to learn, to work together, which is so important in the future, because I cannot see that we are able to solve the problems of the world without having collaboration. We need collaboration and common rules," he said.
Themed "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation", this year's BFA annual conference is scheduled to run from Tuesday to Friday. It will focus on four core topics and feature more than 50 sub-forums, roundtables and dialogue sessions.
Boao Forum boosts mutual understanding between Europe, Asia: former Finnish PM
