As early as 2000, Xi Jinping, then governor of Fujian Province in southeast China, made the decision to launch Digital Fujian, a digitialization initiative to promote e-government, digital economy and smart society, which became the starting point of the Digital China Initiative. Today, digitalization has been widely extended to various fields such as politics, economy, society, and ecology. Both China’s industrial civilization and agricultural civilization are undergoing a profound transformation driven by digitalization. It is an irreversible trend, accelerating the application of information technology worldwide.

As the world’s two major economies and science and technology hubs, China and the EU have a strong resource base and broad cooperation space in the fields of digitalization, smart technology, green development and networking. Global economic growth can be more efficient, eco-friendly and sustainable if China and the EU strengthen talent exchanges and cooperation, jointly address the challenges brought about by digital transformation, and seize the opportunities unleashed by intelligent development.

There is a realistic foundation for carrying out talent exchanges and cooperation and promoting digital and intelligent transformation. Since the establishment of the China-EU High-Level People-to-People Exchange Dialogue, the two have achieved remarkable cooperation results in fields like education policy and student and scholar exchanges. China has agreements with 22 EU member states on mutual recognition of degrees, and a guideline on mutual recognition of credit between Chinese and EU higher education institutions has been published. According to Eurostat, there are about 86,000 Chinese students in the EU while about 270,000 Chinese citizens work there.

China and the EU have a long-term and good basis for cooperation in scientific and technological research on the environment, climate and water resources. Their cooperation in digitalization, smart technology and green development has also become increasingly close in recent years. The two sides have signed a number of agreements on data flows, and the first meeting under the China-EU Data Cross-Border Flow Communication Mechanism was held in August this year.

Increased Chinese investment

Chinese companies have continued to increase their R&D investment in Europe, and European companies have also set up a large number of R&D centers in China. For example, Huawei collaborates with a number of European telecom operators to jointly promote the construction of 5G networks. By the end of 2023, Huawei had built more than 100,000 5G base stations in Europe.

The world today is undergoing profound changes. The geopolitical situation is tense, unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism are rampant, and globalization has encountered resistance, which have all had a negative impact on China-EU talent exchanges and cooperation. However, both sides share similar development goals, highly compatible concepts, and complementary industrial advantages. Besides, there is extensive cooperation space in the fields of green power, sci-tech innovation, and advanced manufacturing.

Cooperation in these areas will not only help promote high-quality development of the two economies, but also provide a broad stage for their talents. In particular, in the fields of smart technology and digitalization, China and the EU, as two major scientific and technological innovation forces, have their own advantages in technology research and development, application scenarios and policy support. They can strengthen cooperation and exchanges in artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing, and jointly promote scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading.

Areas for joint efforts

China and the EU should clarify the strategic targets of future-oriented cooperation and construct a top-level design. The strategic goal of China-EU talent exchange and cooperation to promote digital and intelligent transformation should be refined into top-level design and implementation measures. The roles and tasks of government departments should be clarified, and their initiatives and creativity brought into play, which will promote a China-EU innovation community step by step.

China and the EU should improve their digital and intelligent cooperation mechanism and policy dialogue platform, and strengthen policy communication, coordination and cooperation. They should also jointly formulate policy measures and standard specifications for digital and intelligent development, and provide a more fair, transparent and predictable market environment for each other’s enterprises.

They should take technological cooperation as a breakthrough and persist in promoting multi-level cooperation by category. Some areas are easier to cooperate in and joint work can be accelerated there, such as 5G, cross-border e-commerce, and e-payment. In some areas where progress is relatively slow, they should look for opportunities, especially focusing on key areas related to people’s livelihood.

They must take the initiative to plan for some major issues involving new trends and new directions, complement each other’s advantages, and make joint breakthroughs. By establishing joint R&D institutions and cooperation in scientific research projects, they can strengthen exchanges and cooperation in talents, funds and technologies, and promote the application of scientific and technological achievements.

Non-governmental cooperation should be promoted to supplement governmental cooperation, and set a new trend of international scientific and technological cooperation in the new era. The scientific and technological community should be expanded through cooperation and consensus-building. Non-governmental international science and technology organizations should participate in global science and technology governance and make their voice heard.

It is necessary to establish a mechanism for scientific, technological and people-to-people exchanges and gather strategic consensus. It is also necessary to promote the deep integration and coordinated development of Chinese and European industries with enterprises as the main body, and build industrial clusters with international competitiveness.

Finally, attention must be paid to talent training and exchange. China and the EU should strengthen cooperation in talent training and exchanges, and jointly cultivate talents in digital and intelligent technology with international vision and innovation capabilities. Through scholarships, joint training programs, exchange of visiting scholars, exchanges and cooperation between talents in scientific research, education, and industry will be promoted.

Talent exchange and cooperation is a critical way to promote digital and intelligent transformation. It is also a long-term and arduous task, which requires both China and the EU to work together and move forward together. With a more open mind, a more pragmatic style, and a more innovative thinking, they can deepen cooperation and jointly create a better future for digital and intelligent transformation.

The future of China and the EU depends on talent innovation in order to achieve sustainable development, and it is also inseparable from the exchange and cooperation of scientific and technological talents. China and the EU can jointly promote the globalization of scientific and technological innovation, and contribute to the brilliance and strength of cooperation and innovation, mutual benefit and win-win results for a better tomorrow.

Zhang Jing’an is an academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences.