The 2020 World Internet Conference (WIC), one of China's highest-level tech summits, will be held on November 23 and 24 in the water town of Wuzhen in east China's Zhejiang Province, to promote openness and cooperation in cyber communications. 

"We're sending a positive signal that China and the rest of the world will be working together towards digital cooperation. We need to make the global cyberspace more inclusive, balanced and focused on win-win development," said Zhao Zeliang, vice minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China.  

The two-day event, including forums and an exhibition of the latest internet technologies, will be moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Zhao. 

Participants, including government officials, leaders of international organizations, executives from major tech companies and scholars from China and abroad, will discuss hot issues such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital economy and this year in particular, the science-based prevention and control measures in response to the global pandemic.

There will also be an online expo, which will showcase new technologies, products and applications in such areas as AI, cloud computing, big data, block chain and 5G from more than 100 tech companies and research institutions.

Like previous years, the top 15 world-leading internet scientific and technological achievements during the past year will be released. So far, the organizer has received over 300 candidates from a dozen of countries including the U.S., Russia, Germany, France, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, etc.  

Read more: 15 world-leading sci-tech achievements awarded at the 6th WIC 

Two reports - the 2020 World Internet Development Report and the China Internet Development Report - will also be released. Compiled by the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies annually since 2014, the reports summarize the progress and trends in the internet sector at home and abroad during the past year, and predict what the future might hold.

(CGTN's Dong Xue contributed to the story.)