The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) held a promotion event yesterday at the Macao Science Centre’s Exhibition Centre for its third conference of the International Science, Technology and Innovation Forum (ISTIF), which is scheduled to take place from September 19 to 21 in Zhuhai, under the theme of “Innovation for a Green and Sustainable Future”.
BFA is a non-governmental international organisation jointly initiated by 29 member states (28 Asian countries and Australia). Headquartered in Boao, Hainan province, the forum aims to promote economic cooperation primarily for Asia. In 2020 and 2022, BFA had convened the first and second ISTIF conferences respectively in Macau and Guangzhou.
Yesterday’s event was attended by about 100 guests, including members of the Council of Advisors of BFA, as well as representatives from local government departments and agencies, businesses, higher education institutions, and non-profit organisations.
ISTIF’s Executive President Lionel Leong Vai Tac presented an overview of the upcoming conference in his speech, emphasising its highly diverse and international participants. According to Leong, this year’s ISTIF conference will be held in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, following the two previous events that were held in hybrid format.
Leong is a former local government policy secretary for Economy and Finance.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
Leong also said that the conference was being supported by four central government ministries, indicating the dedication to scientific innovation by Beijing. He added that he expected young locals to benefit from the content that will be presented by the conference, by gaining new ideas for further integration within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA).
In response to media questions regarding the expected number of participants during the event’s Q&A session, Leong said that this year’s conference would be larger in number of both attendees and parallel sessions than the previous ones. However, he added: “What matters most is the spark of inspiration for innovation resulting from discussions amongst people with different perspectives, so I think success of the conference cannot only be measured by attendee numbers but relies mainly on the attendee experience.”
Li Guangtao, executive director of the organising committee of ISTIF, introduced the preparations for the conference in his speech. Li said that the conference would cover topics from 12 cutting-edge scientific fields, such as “mobile communication”, “financial technology”, “climate crisis”, “construction technology”, “biomedicine”, “traditional Chinese medicine” and “marine science”. He added that the BFA has included a Women’s Round Table as well as a series of “CETALK” (a knowledge platform jointly established by China and Germany in 2022 to share experience on topics of environmental and circular economy) sessions, in order to show its support for diversity, inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
According to a statement by the BFA, the conference will serve as a platform for knowledge exchange between renowned enterprises and research institutes in the field of green and sustainable economic development, which is “important for Asia’s economic recovery and growth in the post-pandemic era.”
Participants pose for a group photo yesterday in the Macao Science Centre’s Exhibition Centre at the promotion meeting of BFA’s third conference of ISTIF.
– Photo by Gabriel Tam
ISTIF’s Executive President Leong Vai Tac gives an overview of its third conference during the promotion meeting yesterday in the Macao Science Centre’s Exhibition Centre. – Photo courtesy of Exmoo News
