In the afternoon on July 15, China Minmetals Corporation held a scientific and technological innovation conference, at which it reviewed the major achievements made in scientific and technological innovation in recent years, and awarded collectives and individuals which made outstanding contributions to its innovation-driven development. It called on all its officials and employees to further implement the innovation-driven development strategy, work hard to create an Innovative Minmetals, and provide powerful scientific and technological support for China Minmetals to develop itself into a world-class metals and mining group with global competitiveness. Weng Zuliang, Party Group Secretary and Chairman of China Minmetals, attended the conference and made a speech. Guo Wenqing, President and Deputy Party Group Secretary of China Minmetals, took the chair.

At the conference, Weng Zuliang, together with Yu Runcang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, former Deputy Chief Engineer of China ENFI Engineering Corporation, and member of the Expert Consultation Committee of the Central Research Institute inaugurated the Central Research Institute of China Minmetals Corporation. Weng Zuliang issued the letter of appointment to expert representative invited by the Expert Consultation Committee of the Central Research Institute. Guo Wenqing granted the plaque to two state engineering research centers newly included in the system, i.e., State Engineering Research Center for Industrial Environment Protection of MCC Central Research Institute of Building and Construction, and State Engineering Research Center for Silicon-based Material Manufacturing Technology of Luoyang China Silicon Hi-tech Corporation. Liu Caiming, Vice President, Party Group Member and Chief Accountant of China Minmetals read out the decisions of China Minmetals to establish the Central Research Institute, as well as the list of members of the Board of Directors of the Central Research Institute and the list of members of the Expert Consultation Committee of the Central Research Institute. Leaders of China Minmetals presented the prize to the representatives winning the Science and Technology Award of China Minmetals in 2021.

Weng Zuliang pointed out in the speech that in recent years, China Minmetals has been ensuring the full implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches and instructions on scientific & technological innovation, insisting on the "Four Orientations" principle, and focusing on its key responsibility and major business. He also indicated that the scientific and technological self-reliance level of China Minmetals was steadily improved, and that its ability to undertake the state important projects was also strengthened. In addition, he said that the science and technology platform of China Minmetals was increasingly influential, that the innovation in institutions and mechanisms was deepened, and that greater efforts were placed in the interdisciplinary fusion and innovation through collaboration.

Weng Zuliang emphasized that under the background of the interplay of changes not seen in a century and the worldwide epidemic, scientific & technological innovation, which provides strategic support in raising productive forces and boosting overall national strength, has become a focus of international competitions as well as a key variable affecting the development. In response to the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the world first class standards, China Minmetals has specified the overall objectives for its scientific & technological innovation in a certain period in the future: The first is to develop China Minmetals' strategic and technical forces, facilitate the reconstruction of the industrial base and improvement of value through scientific & technological innovation, and boost the innovation ability to a level ranking highest among central state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The second is to build a scientific & technological innovation system with the characteristics of China Minmetals which matches the business system of China Minmetals, and to achieve the goals of gradually improving the personnel training, evaluation and incentive mechanism, greatly increasing the effectiveness of transfer of scientific and technological achievements, and constantly consolidating the scientific & technological innovation platform. The third is to make major breakthroughs in key and core technologies, solve the critical problems of core businesses, and break through the bottlenecks restricting the industrial development and growth of emerging industries. The fourth is to basically form an innovative industry landscape, and achieve the goals that its comprehensive technological level of metal mining and advanced materials is advanced in the international community, that its technological level of metallurgical engineering projects is leading in the world, and that some innovative enterprises and industrial clusters with global competitiveness are established.

In response to the strategic mission of developing an Innovative Minmetals, the scientific and technical layout of setting up 10 low-carbon demonstration zones, launching 100 mitigation and adaption programs, and providing 1,000 places on climate-change training programs, the construction of multilevel science and technology platforms, and the guarantee for an all-inclusive innovation mechanism, Weng Zuliang put forward his opinions in four aspects:

First, to speed up the development of the Central Research Institute, and improve the level of innovation through collaboration. The establishment of the Central Research Institute is the number one priority in building an Innovative Minmetals. We should fully employ the intellectual resources of top experts in this industry to provide powerful decision-making support for the determination of disciplines, arrangements for the research & development direction, and project approval, implementation and evaluation of the Central Research Institute. With project operation as a focus, we should specify the key tasks, implementation route and plan advancement, set up a complete chain of responsibilities, and ensure the efficient and orderly implementation of tasks. We also need to strengthen comprehensive innovation through collaboration, effectively solve problems concerning the dispersion of science and technology resources, unbalanced scientific and technological forces and internal competition, and give full play to the strength of the system which enables us to pool resources behind major undertakings.

Second, to make the company a source of original technology, and improve the ability for systematic research on scientific bottlenecks. We should further improve the scheme for building five sources of original technology of China Minmetals, have a firm grasp of the world technology development trend and direction, and identify technical bottlenecks, thereby making initiative arrangements with fine extensive views and systematic thinking. Focusing on three key technologies, i.e. key generic technologies, cutting-edge frontier technologies, and disruptive technologies, we will also explore the implementation of an incentive mechanism in special economic zones, take the lead in establishing the youth science and technology fund projects, and implement the open competition mechanisms to select the best candidates to lead the projects and the innovation mechanism to launch the scheme of lump-sum basic research funding.

Third, to optimize and improve the science and technology ecosystem, and sufficiently arouse the potential of innovation and creation. On the one hand, we should further strengthen the integration of science and technology, finance, and industry, and form an unimpeded innovation chain. We should establish plans for expanding scientific and technological innovation funds and diversifying the ecosystem of fund through research, and use the scientific and technological innovation funds more efficiently; we should strengthen the layout of patents and standards in critical and core domains; we should also make the R&D achievements commercialized and industrialized through various means such as risk investment and innovation incubation. On the other hand, we should further arouse S&T talents' vitality in innovations, and provide unimpeded channels for talent development. Besides, we should move forward to emphasize China Minmetals' guiding ideology of respecting innovation and talents; we should focus on the internal and external high-end intellectual resources via the "talent + project" model; we will continue deepening the chief technician system, so that more excellent talents can find hope in this system; we will also improve the S&T talents evaluation mechanism, and establish a targeted classified evaluation system.

Fourth, to uphold the leadership of the Party all the time, and strengthen the work guidance and guarantee. The Party organizations at all levels shall make in-depth studies of the top-level design, overall layout, and decisions and plans for scientific & technological innovation. All units under its umbrella shall work closely with each other according to the overall plan of the Party Group, communicate the innovation elements, match innovations supply with demands, and coordinate with each other to strengthen the trans-department, cross-enterprise, and cross-domain collaboration for scientific research. They should develop a favorable innovation culture, set a list of personnel who are not held accountable after fulfilling their duties in scientific & technological innovation and a mechanism to permit mistakes, and vigorously stimulate and promote the spirit of Chinese scientists.

Guo Wenqing put forward three requirements in implementing the principles of the conference: First, we should thoroughly apply the guidelines of the conference, achieve unity in thoughts and actions, and raise our awareness. We should have a deep understanding of the vital importance of scientific and technological work to the reform and development of China Minmetals, firmly stick to the leading position of science and technology, and march on the path of scientific & technological innovation. Second, we should focus on critical problems and concentrate forces to make breakthroughs. We should strengthen our responsibility as a national backbone in this industry, and take an active part in the country-level scientific research projects. Aiming at restrictions and obstacles to improvement of innovation ability, we will build some centers and special zones for scientific & technological innovation, and actively obtain the leading strategic position in scientific & technological innovation. Third, we should build a good atmosphere to amass the boundless might of scientific & technological innovation. We should constantly innovate the organization and implementation model of important scientific research tasks, advance the collaborative cooperation of enterprises, universities, research institutes and end-users, and make constant improvements to the scientific research achievements. We will further strengthen the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, produce characteristic products, and apply core technologies to products to improve the market competitiveness. Leading S&T talents shall be provided with more controlling power of innovation activities, and we should fully implement mechanisms to stimulate scientific & technological innovation and to rectify mistakes.

At the conference, representatives from advanced units and teams in scientific & technological innovation, including MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited, Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd., Kingland Group, and Shanghai Baoye Group Corporation Ltd., delivered their speeches.

Leaders of China Minmetals including Dong Mingjun, Jiao Jian, Zhu Kebing, Wang Shilei, Chen Jianguang and Zhang Zhenmin attended the conference. Members not from the leading group, and heads of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Team, headquarters departments, directly-affiliated organizations, and directly-managed enterprises and relevant subsidiaries of China Minmetals, as well as chief scientists, chief technical experts, and winners of the science and technology awards attended the conference onsite or via video link.