The People's Government of Hunan Province and Peking University signed an agreement on a new round of strategic cooperation in Beijing on December 10, 2024. Shen Xiaoming, secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee; Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of Hunan Province; Hao Ping, secretary of the CPC Peking University Committee; and, Gong Qihuang, president of Peking University, attended a symposium and witnessed the signing ceremony.

Governor Mao thanked Peking University for its long-term concern and support for Hunan's development. He noted that Hunan and Peking University have a long history of interaction, especially since the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement in 2017. The two sides have continued to deepen pragmatic cooperation in education, science and technology, talent training, and other areas, achieving an array of high-quality research outcomes, cultivating a group of high-level talents, and creating a number of high-level platforms. Peking University has trained more than 1,800 talents in the education field for Hunan in the past three years. The PKU Changsha Institute for Computing and Digital Economy has undertaken 33 national key special projects and collaborated with enterprises to build 5 joint research and development platforms.

Governor Mao expected both sides to take this signing as a new opportunity to further advance innovation coordination, education collaboration, high-end talents introduction and cultivation, and industrial development, highlighting the country's most fundamental interests and the province's plans for progress. Efforts should be made to open up the channel of "applied basic research-technological innovation-industrialization"; work together to build a pilot area for the integration of culture and science and technology; and, assist Hunan in nurturing the new quality productive forces. Hunan will strive to guarantee preferential policies, platforms, services, and elements to boost the government-university cooperation to a new level, he added.

Zhang Yingchun, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and executive vice governor of Hunan Province, and Zhang Jin, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Peking University Committee and vice president of Peking University, signed the strategic cooperation agreement on behalf of the two sides. According to the agreement, both sides will carry out cooperation in such fields as strategic decision-making consulting, science and technology, education, talents, and health care. Before the signing ceremony, Secretary Shen and Governor Mao visited the exhibition of Peking University's scientific and technological innovation achievements.

Peking University leaders Chen Baojian, Wang Bo, Ning Qi, Dong Zhiyong, Fang Fang, and Jiang Guohua; Zhang Zemin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and, persons in charge of relevant departments of Hunan Province and relevant enterprises were present.

Photos taken by Tang Jun and Liu Shangwen.