The Asia-Europe Innovation and Development Forum is held on Sept 11 in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Asia-Europe Innovation and Development Forum was held on Sept 11 in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province.

Themed around "Innovation for Development: Fostering New Growth Drivers", the forum gathered nearly 400 representatives including government officials, entrepreneurs, scholars and experts from 31 countries and regions.

The event was a follow-up to the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and aimed to deepen cooperation between Asia and Europe. ASEM is an Asian–European political dialogue forum to enhance relations and various forms of cooperation between its partners.

The participants held in-depth discussions on such topics as Asia-Europe information technology innovation cooperation, smart city construction, intelligent manufacturing development and e-commerce innovation.

It is generally agreed that ASEM members are highly complementary in technology, resources, markets, human resources and other fields, and should strengthen cooperation, share good practices in innovation and promote the integration of information technology and traditional industries.

It is urged that ASEM members should strengthen policy exchanges and technical training to create a favorable environment for the development of new technologies, new businesses and new trade models.

Cooperation on both the public and private level is encouraged to promote economic development and technological innovation in Asia and Europe in a more open and inclusive manner.

The forum was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and supported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Commerce.