The First Session of the Second Council of the Guangdong Institute of Chinese Engineering Development Strategies (hereinafter referred to as the “Guangdong Institute”) and 2018 Exchange Conference on Research Results of Consulting Projects was held in Guangzhou on December 25th, 2019. Li Xiaohong, President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and Ma Xingrui, Governor of Guangdong Province, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. Zhou Ji, Honorary President of CAE, He Huawu, Vice President of CAE, and 21 CAE Members, including Wu Hequan, Xie Kechang, Chen Yong and Guo Dongming, attended the meeting.

At the meeting, Wang Yingjun, President of Guangdong Institute, made a report on the work performance of the Guangdong Institute. Besides, six CAE Members (Zhou Ji, Wu Hequan, Chen Yong, You Zheng, Wang Yingjun, and Chen Xiangsheng) made reports on the results of 2018 consulting projects of the Guangdong Institute.

Li spoke highly of the work done by Guangdong Institute over the past year and opinions and suggestions on the high-quality economic and social development of Guangdong Province in various industrial fields proposed by CAE Members . He also reviewed the cooperation between the CAE and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province. Beyond that, he proposed three suggestions for the follow-up service of Guangdong Institute for local development: first, the strategic consulting research should be deepened to better serve local innovation and development; second, CAE Members should be organised to carry out joint scientific and technological research and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements; third, the focus of work should be shifted to vigorously carry out activities for private enterprises and to assist rural areas with the help of CAE Members.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the goal of making Guangdong a strong manufacturing province, the Guangdong Government has established an expert advisory committee for the construction of Guangdong Province to a strong manufacturing province and held its first meeting after the above-mentioned meeting. Zhou Ji attended that meeting and served as the director of the committee.