The 23rd East Asia Round Table Meeting of Academies of Engineering (EA-RTM) and International Symposium on Smart Entertainment was held on November 30, 2020 via video link. Wang Chen, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Yuko Harayama, Vice President of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ), and Oh-Kyong Kwon, President of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea (NAEK), gave opening remarks.

Wang said that as the three largest economies in East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea play an important role in the regional and global economies. He said it is of great significance to support economic and social development in the three countries and cope with the regional and even global challenges they face together by actively promoting engineering and scientific cooperation. Fifteen countries including China, Japan and South Korea just signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this month, which brings their economic and technological relationship closer. Founded 23 years ago, EA-RTM has become an important platform for communication among engineering experts and a success in cooperation between the three academies.

In a following administrative meeting, Wang described recent efforts by the CAE, especially in the fight against COVID-19. Officials from the Department of International Cooperation at the CAE introduced plans for the 24th EA-RTM that will be hosted by the CAE in 2021. Experts from CAE member Sun Ninghui’s team outlined the China-Japan-ROK Forum on Elderly and Disabled Persons Adaptation and Assistance. The representative of EAJ introduced survey results on the 8th China-Japan-ROK technical cooperation. Experts from the three countries gave reports on trends in digital transformation and future innovations in smart entertainment, and prospects for the game industry.

EA-RTM is a regional cooperation mechanism among engineering academies in the three countries to seek cooperative approaches and better solutions to common issues in engineering science and technology, and offer suggestions for technical issues related to development in East Asia.