Humanoid robots attract the attention of a guest during the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing on Thursday. The conference, with the theme "New Quality Productive Forces and Global Science and Technology Cooperation", opened on Thursday and will run through Monday. It has attracted more than 1,000 participants from over 100 countries and regions to discuss cutting-edge technologies. WANG JING/CHINA DAILY

Advanced technology and top scientific achievements are in the spotlight at the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference, which opened on Thursday in Beijing, attracting over 1,000 guests from more than 100 countries and regions.

The five-day event, also known as the ZGC Forum, features 128 activities in five major areas: forums, technology trade, achievements, innovation competitions and supporting events. This year's theme is "New Quality Productive Forces and Global Science and Technology Cooperation".

While addressing the forum's opening ceremony, Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing said that China is willing to work with other countries to explore new models of mutually beneficial and win-win sci-tech cooperation, in order to drive the development of new quality productive forces amid the deepening new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation.

China has been deeply implementing an innovation-driven development strategy and achieving fruitful results in the integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation, while continuously strengthening the momentum of new industrialization and steadily developing new quality productive forces, Zhang noted.

Suliman Almazroua, CEO of Saudi Arabia's National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, who attended the opening ceremony, said, "The forum is highly international, which is a great platform for global science and technology researchers to communicate their views and young technology company leaders to seek opportunities."

"I would use 'innovation through collaboration' to summarize this forum," he said. "There are people from various sectors, and we can find potential partners here."

Almazroua, who is in Beijing for the first time, said he is eager to see more at the event.

A robot shakes hands with a guest on Thursday before the opening ceremony of the 2025 ZGC Forum Annual Conference in Beijing. Humanoid robots are a major highlight with nearly a hundred robots from 15 companies actively offering services at the annual meeting. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY

This year's conference places a strong emphasis on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, green development and basic research.

Sixty parallel forums will be held, with 20 initiatives launched for the first time, including the Open Science International Forum and the Ocean Science and Development Forum. More than 30 international organizations and institutions are co-hosting 18 events, with numerous leaders participating in discussions.

Ma Juan, CEO of Steinbeis Sustainable Technology and Management Beijing Co, noted that this year's forum focuses on cutting-edge technologies.

"In the past year, we selected 12 cutting-edge technologies among the 60 globally to cooperate deeply with local Beijing companies, which has promoted a local industrial upgrade," Ma said.

AI and humanoid robots are major highlights at this year's forum and have generated significant interest among the participants, who can encounter robots at the forum venue engaged in such activities as serving drinks, answering questions, delivering items and even writing calligraphy.

Nearly 100 robots from 15 companies are deployed at the site, according to the organizer.

"We aim to make the Zhongguancun Forum's annual meeting a grand stage for the concentrated display of new technologies, products and scenarios," said Jin Wei, vice-mayor of Beijing, at a news conference last week.

At Thursday's opening ceremony, the National Natural Science Foundation of China released a list of the country's top 10 scientific advances of 2024.

The advances were mainly achieved in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, information science, chemistry, materials science, energy, Earth and environmental science, and life and medical science.

The ZGC Forum, founded in 2007, has evolved into a national-level open innovation platform as well as an international forum.

Xinhua contributed to this story.