On February 26, China Minmetals held its 2026 Annual Science and Technology (S&T) Innovation Work Meeting and the first plenary meeting of the S&T Committee for 2026. Chen Dexin, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chairman of China Minmetals, attended and delivered a speech. Zhu Kebing, Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, Director, and General Manager of China Minmetals, presided over the meeting. Wang Jiezhi, Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director, announced the award decisions, while Wang Xingquan, member of the Party Leadership Group and Senior Vice President, delivered the S&T innovation report. Other members of the leadership team were in attendance.

Chen Dexin pointed out the necessity of thoroughly implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s key discourses and instructions on S&T innovation. He emphasized the commitment to "rooting in the real economy, strengthening research on key core technologies, and promoting the deep integration of S&T and industrial innovation." He stressed that innovation must become the primary driver of high-quality development and a solid strategic support for fulfilling the company’s mission and winning future competition.

Chen emphasized that the Group must prioritize national strategic interests and grasp the paramount importance and urgency of S&T innovation from an elevated strategic vantage point. The Group must precisely grasp the essence of the "New Whole-Nation System," focusing on the synergy between efficient markets and proactive organizational governance, and the alignment of national strategies with industrial innovation. This will underpin a distinctive Minmetals S&T innovation framework, one that is Group-led, demand-driven, collaborative, and optimized for efficient transformation.

We will utilize the "Four Pillars" as the blueprint to build a China Minmetals-featured S&T innovation system, vitalizing and operationalizing the framework to drive S&T innovation from strategic design to practical implementation. This involves: establishing platforms to create high-level innovation strongholds for strategic missions; institutionalizing mechanisms to clear bottlenecks hindering system efficiency; strengthening coordination to forge a command system focused on strategic alignment and holistic synchronization; and prioritizing transformation to link technology with industrial value chains.

The session saw the presentation of awards to the 2025 China Minmetals S&T Award recipients, the signing of the 2026 Responsibility Statements for Key S&T Innovation Tasks, and a briefing on the 2026 work plans for the Specialized S&T Committees.

The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with participants attending both in person and via video link. The meeting brought together senior executives outside the core leadership team, disciplinary inspection personnel, and heads of headquarters departments, regional offices, and the National Innovation Center. It also gathered S&T Committee members, Chief Scientists, and Chief Technical Experts, alongside leadership teams and departmental heads from all directly managed enterprises, R&D institutes, and core subsidiaries.