(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- This year's Pujiang Innovation Forum is particularly international as foreigners account for almost 40 percent of all the guests of the global collaboration platform in Shanghai.

More than 200 experts and scholars from nearly 30 countries and regions around the world, including Brazil, the United States, and France, will join the 16th Pujiang Innovation Forum, Chen Hongkai, an official at the science and technology commission of Shanghai, said during a press briefing yesterday. The event will be held in the eastern city from Sept. 9 to Sept. 11 and the theme of this year is 'Open Innovation System: Innovation for Global Connectivity'.

The forum invites speakers from around the world to exchange ideas on how to strengthen international cooperation in fields such as big science and open science, per Xie Min, director of policy and innovation department at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The goal is to explore how to shape a culture of scientific and technological innovation and how to improve the related policies. Participants will talk about hot topics such as brain science, medical health, low-carbon developments, and talent training, Xie added.

On the sidelines of the Pujiang forum, the eastern city has organized the Innomatch Expo for three straight years. This year, the 10,000-square meter expo will release more than 2,000 tenders for technological innovation across the country and an enterprise reward of CNY8.2 billion (USD1.1 billion). Moreover, for the first time, the event will reveal over 10,000 high-level jobs across China.

Additionally, the Pujiang forum has a sub-forum called WeStart which focuses on entrepreneurship. The sub-forum has been held since 2012, attracting more than 100,000 entrepreneurial spirits.

The 2023 WeStart will mobilize more than 500 global incubators while over 200 investment institutions are invited to learn from early-stage tech startups. More than 100 high-quality projects have been selected for roadshows to accelerate fundraising and expansion.

Editor: Emmi Laine