On the afternoon of October 22, Cai Qi, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, met with Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of Germany-based Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Chairman of the Springer Nature Supervisory Board.

Cai Qi expressed gratitude for the active role Springer Nature has played in science and technology exchanges and cooperation between China and other parts of the world. He said, “Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee, China has achieved remarkable results in the fight against COVID-19. We will continue to coordinate epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, leverage the opportunities brought by building national comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding opening-up in the service sector and the Beijing Pilot Free Trade Zone, and hold the China International Fair for Trade in Services, ZGC Forum, and Financial Street Forum to promote quality development and take opening-up to a higher level. Beijing is one of the regions with most abundant scientific and technological resources, talent pool and most robust innovation activities in the world and has topped the Nature Index-global science city rankings since 2016. We hope that you could actively promote the scientific and technological achievements and innovation resources of Beijing, support our initiative of building a global innovation hub, give full play to your strengths and influence as a top publisher to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Beijing-based universities and research institutes and continue to release research results regarding the Nature Index and Global Innovation Hubs Index.” He also invited Springer Nature and its affiliates to hold academic exchanges activities in Beijing and looked forward to their continuous support and participation in ZGC Forum.

Mr. Holtzbrinck praised the efforts by the Chinese government and Beijing Municipality in containing the epidemic and spoke highly of Beijing's significant progress in the building of a global innovation hub and in fruitful research achievements in various fields. He pledged that the publishing group will follow up on Beijing's innovation and development, deepen exchanges and cooperation with Beijing-based universities and research institutes, and actively participate in ZGC Forum to further boost international science and technology exchanges and cooperation. 

Other municipal leaders attending the meeting included Zhang Jiaming and Sui Zhenjiang.

(Article by Wu Hongli; photo by Sun Yue)