Cutting-edge internet expo kicks off in Wuzhen

An internet expo showcasing the latest trends in global internet development opened on Sunday, a day before the start of the World Internet Conference (WIC) in the famous ancient water town of Wuzhen, eastern China's Zhejiang province.

The Light of Internet Expo, an important part of the WIC, will last for three days, attracting more than 130 top enterprises and institutions from home and abroad, including Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, Epson, and Infosys.

Centered around the WIC's theme of "Digital Empowerment for a Better Future: Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," the expo will demonstrate cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements in such areas as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data, blockchain and 5G.

Highlights include Alibaba Group's logistics robot and cloud computer, Tencent's "Digital Ark" initiative, China Unicom's 5G smart education device, Baidu's Apollo self-driving car and Zhijiang Lab's brain-like computer. Visitors crowded the venue that hosts the Light of Internet Expo to get a glimpse of the future.

In addition, more than 100 enterprises and institutions from the field of digital economy have published talent recruitment vacancies, involving 1,700 jobs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's World Internet Conference has been streamlined into a two-day "Internet Development Forum" with participants taking part both online and in-person. The event will consist of two main forums on Nov. 23 and five sub-forums the following day, exploring subjects such as the digital economy, science-based COVID-19 prevention and control measures, the industrial internet, and international norms in cyberspace.

At present, the pandemic continues to rage and the international landscape is evolving. "We remain committed to building an international platform for connecting China and the world, and a Chinese platform for an internet, shared and governed by all," said Zhuang Rongwen, minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, and Yuan Jiajun, secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, in a joint welcome statement on Nov. 22. "We stand ready to work together to promote global digital empowerment and economic recovery, delivering more vibrancy to the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace."