the 2016 shenzhen international biotech summit and the biology and health industry expo will be held in the shenzhen convention and exhibition center from sept. 22 to 24, it was announced at a press conference yesterday.
"the output value of the biology and health industry in shenzhen reached 200 billion yuan (us$29.94 billion) last year, with a year-on-year growth rate above 20 percent," said li ganming, deputy secretary general of the city government.
he said there are 319 innovation platforms, including 21 at the state-level, based in shenzhen, which are targeting the biotech industry in specific fields such as biomedicine and dna sequencing.
this year's summit will have keynote speeches, high-end dialogues and professional forums covering various hot topics in the biotech industry, such as cell therapy, medical care robots and organ transplantation. government officials, biotech entrepreneurs and investors from china, israel, south korea, japan, australia and india will attend the summit for academic exchange, policy analysis and industrial cooperation.
li said a number of renowned biotech companies from home and abroad will showcase their latest products and lab achievements during the expo, while financing events will be held for companies seeking potential clients and investors to help commercialize their research findings.
wu you, deputy director of shenzhen's development and reform commission, said the city government has emphasized the promotion and development of emerging industries in recent years, while it and biotech industries are playing a leading role in driving the city's economic growth.
shenzhen institute of advanced technology's vice president, lu jiancheng, said the institute has recruited over 1,000 researchers to work in the biotech field on projects such as developing medical care robots by integrating information technology with biotechnology. he hopes there will be some leading biotech enterprises in shenzhen that could rival local it giants such as huawei and tencent within five years.
shenzhen has hosted the biology and health industry expo for four years, and the biotech summit for two years. over 40,000 professional audience members, such as academics and lab technicians, will join the summit and expo this year, while ordinary visitors can sign up to attend via the organizer's official wechat account: btsummit.
