The first Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange was held in Chongqing on November 6 and 7, 2023.

The conference was co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the Chongqing Municipality People's Government, and the Sichuan Provincial People's Government.

Themed "Together for Innovation, Development for All", the event focused on issues such as intergovernmental S&T cooperation, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, industrial innovation and development, and the future of medicine. It featured an opening ceremony, a plenary session, theme activities, round-table meetings, and an exhibition.

The conference achieved fruitful results including announcement of the "International S&T Cooperation Initiative", the launch of BRI S&T Innovation Cooperation Plans and the beginning of the development of the BRI S&T Innovation Cooperation Zone. Over 800 guests from more than 80 countries and regions as well as international organizations attended the event.

Li Xiaohong, President of the CAE, and Vice President Wang Chen participated in the conference and several related activities. At the plenary session on November 6, the CAE joined the MOST, the CAS and the CAST to jointly release BRI S&T Innovation Cooperation Plans focused on sustainable development, poverty reduction, spatial information technology, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Those plans express a shared aspiration for open partnership and joint development to support high-quality BRI development and expand the benefit of innovation achievements to reach people of all countries.

As one of the organizers, the CAE hosted the main event – the finals and award ceremony of the 5th IKCEST Belt and Road International Big Data Competition. Based in the CAE, the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) is a category II centre under the auspices of UNESCO.

The competition, themed "Multi-modal Fake Information Detection on Social Media", attracted 3,809 teams with 4,147 participants from 548 universities across 19 countries and regions. It was co-hosted by the IKCEST, the China Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (CKCEST), Xi'an Jiaotong University and Baidu. This event was also included in the list of multilateral cooperation achievements during the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, released on October 18, 2023.