Highlights for CAS 60th Anniversary Celebration

Foreign Diplomats Get Access to CAS

A series of activities entitled “Getting Access to CAS” was sponsored by CAS from the end of November to early December 2009. In accordance with the program, the S&T officers of foreign embassies and representatives from relevant international organizations, foreign national scientific institutions and multi-national corporations were invited to visit CAS. The purpose of these activities was oriented to provide awareness tours for the guests to understand the historical course ?of CAS and progress made by CAS in the last 60 years ever since its founding in 1949, particularly the S&T achievements since 1998 when CAS started to implement the Knowledge Innovation Program. In the meantime, the program will further strengthen the cooperation and exchanges between CAS and the international S&T community and to promote the comprehensive and sound understanding of CAS by the international S&T community.

The Program included a CAS achievements introduction meeting and a welcome dinner and a visit arranged to the exhibition for 60 anniversary of CAS entitled “Making progress along with advancement of science and motherland”, while awareness tours to some institutions located in Beijing, Shanghai and Hefei, and some large scientific facilities and the University of Science and Technology of China were also organized.

The series of activities under the program of “Getting access to CAS” was formally started on Nov. 27, 2009. More than 70 diplomats, including ambassadors, ministers, counselors from 35 countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, France, Korea, etc. and representatives from UNDP and UNESCO attended relevant activities and the welcome dinner. CAS President Lu Yongxiang, Executive Vice President Bai Chunli, Vice Presidents Li Jiayang, Li Jinghai, Ding Zhongli and Deputy Director General Tan Tieniu were present at the dinner. Lu Yongxiang delivered a warm speech, in which he pointed out that CAS, ever since the reform and opening-up of China in early 1980s, has actively devoted itself to the national economic construction and contributed great much to the reform of S&T mechanism and the establishment of high-tech industry, which has played a demonstrative and driving role in China. In the past 60 years, the development of CAS benefited from the wide and deep-going international S&T cooperation. Thus CAS will continue to attach importance to and strengthen the existing S&T cooperation with different countries of the world with the aim to realize a win-win prospect and benefit the human being by developing science and technology as a whole, Lu further expressed. Bai Chunli, executive vice president of CAS chaired the welcome dinner for the guests, and Georges Papageorgiou, ministerial counselor of EU Permanent Mission to China, made a speech on behalf of the diplomatic envoys, in which he hoped CAS would cooperate with other countries even closer in S&T fields and wished CAS be more prosperous in the future.

On Nov. 27, the diplomatic envoys paid a visit to CAS institutions and the exhibition for the CAS 60th anniversary in Beijing, and visits to CAS institutions located in other areas were arranged accordingly after that.

Lu Yongxiang Meets Japanese S&T Goodwill Mission

On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of both the founding of the People’s Republic of China and establishment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Japanese S&T goodwill mission, consisting of scientists of varied generations, was invited to visit CAS. On Aug. 20, Lu Yongxiang, president of CAS met the Japanese mission. The S&T colleagues and friends, old and new, recalled the development history of the S&T exchanges and friendly activities, and expressed the common wish for a bright future of S&T cooperation and exchanges between the two countries in the new century. Lu, on behalf of CAS, highly commented on the contribution to the Sino-Japanese scholarly exchange and friendly ties by the Japanese friends.