I'm Robert Lawrence Kuhn and here's what I'm watching: The future of the Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, in catalyzing a new-era economy driven by "science, technology, and innovation," following the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, celebrating the BRI's 10th anniversary. President Xi Jinping directed the BRI to focus on "high-quality development," as he has directed China's domestic development, and he announced "eight major steps."

Here I focus on the fifth: advancing scientific and technological innovation. These are not just mid-course corrections of BRI problems, like excessive debt or corruption which President Xi addressed with respect to "small yet smart" programs and an "integrity-based" Compliance Evaluation System, but enhanced visions for the future. Measures for BRI partner countries include 100 joint laboratories over the next five years and supporting young scientists to work on short-term programs in China.

President Xi calls for the BRI to become "a road of innovation": prioritizing innovation-driven development, strengthening scientific and technological cooperation, optimizing an innovation environment, and establishing technology trading and transfer markets. Faced with a lack of innovative talent in some BRI partner countries, China is organizing scientific training activities to help cultivate innovative talent. Given uneven global digital development, building the digital economy in developing countries, like in China itself, can promote economic growth and narrow the digital divide. For example, smart cities, mobile payments and cross-border E-commerce.

At the end of 2021, China had established scientific and technological cooperation relationships with more than 160 countries and regions,covering medicine, agriculture, oceans, energy resources, public health, advanced manufacturing, and high-end fields such as materials and information technology. As of June 2023, China had signed the "Intergovernmental Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation" with more than 80 BRI partner countries.

For example, the China-Kenya Joint Laboratory of Crop Molecular Biology, focuses on food and horticulture and is committed to ensuring food supply security. The China-Austria Joint Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Manufacturing integrates China's digital economy and artificial intelligence technology with Austria's traditional manufacturing technology, and it developed a landslide geological disaster monitoring system, and a city based on 5G communication and Internet-of-Things technology. The China-Egypt Joint Renewable Energy Laboratory is based on China's mature solar energy technology and leverages Egypt's abundant solar lighting and silicon mineral resources.

For the long future, basic science is especially important. Many Chinese scientific institutes and universities have established research centers with BRI partner countries. One way of assessing cooperation in basic sciences is via co-authored papers. Topics include materials science, electronic circuits, chemical physics, applied physics, chemistry, nanoscience and environmental science. However, there is a huge difference in innovation cooperation between China and various BRI partner countries. The number of cooperation patents with only five countries accounts for more than 80 percent, namely Singapore, India, Israel, Russia, and Malaysia.

China is establishing a targeted BRI basic research fund to enhance the scientific and technological innovation capabilities of BRI partner countries. China is also strengthening cooperation with BRI partner countries in their key research areassuch as information technology and biological sciences in Singapore; physics, aerospace and mathematics in Russia; and oil and gas exploration, storage and transportation in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, the space agencies of Pakistan and Azerbaijan will join other international partners in China's lunar research-station project, which aims to build a permanent base on the Moon in the 2030s.

But nurturing basic science, I caution, differs from building infrastructure. That China now prioritizes both basic and applied research in BRI partner countries is a significant upgrade to the BRI.

I'm keeping watch. I'm Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Script: Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Editors: Yang Yutong, Liang Zhiqiang

Designer: Qi Haiming

Producer: Sun Lan

Chief Editor: Li Shouen

Supervisors: Xiao Jian, Adam Zhu

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