On the afternoon of February 23, the 16th Great Wall Friendship Award Ceremony and Symposium were held at Shougang Park, honoring 15 foreign nationals with the award for their outstanding contributions to the development of Beijing. During the symposium, Yin Li, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, stressed that Beijing’s effort to lead the country in basically achieving socialist modernization generates enormous room and potential for development. An open Beijing welcomes international talents to break new ground, start businesses, and live and work in the city. It is hoped that everyone will share future development opportunities and participate in Beijing's endeavors with greater passion. Yin Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Beijing, presented the awards to the recipients, and Liu Wei, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, was present.

At the symposium, laureates spoke highly of Beijing's socio-economic achievements in recent years, expressing their commitment to promoting the high-quality development in Beijing and cooperation between China and other countries. Based on their respective area of expertise, they talked about and proposed suggestions on three topics, including promoting the integration of innovation and industrial chains to enhance regional economic integration; fostering international cooperation in basic research to address major global challenges; and enhancing people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning to enrich world civilization.

Yin Li congratulated the laureates and thanked them for their care and support for Beijing's development. He emphasized that China has always been committed to world peace and common development. Upholding innovation-driven, coordinated, green, open, and shared development philosophy, the Chinese government and people are endeavoring to cultivate new quality productive forces with technological innovation as the core element. China's socio-economic development benefits its people and the world. Currently, the country is vigorously promoting Chinese modernization, which will inject a strong impetus into global economic growth and create greater opportunities for global development. As the capital of China, Beijing is striving to lead the way in basically achieving socialist modernization, which requires the support and participation of international talents. It is hoped that everyone will share opportunities, actively participate in and contribute more to this endeavor.

According to Yin Li, Beijing's greatest advantage lies in its rich resources in education, science, and talent. He encouraged foreign nationals to further engage in building Beijing into an international innovation center and promote international exchanges and cooperation in science and technology. The aim is to enable Beijing to access more global innovation resources and achieve more original research findings, thereby making greater contributions to global sci-tech development. Boasting a solid foundation, abundant policies, and vast potential for industrial development, Beijing has fostered two industrial clusters in new-generation information technology and services for science and technology, each with an annual output value of over one trillion yuan, as well as several industrial clusters, each with an annual output value of over 100 billion yuan. The city also enjoys favorable policies such as the “two zones” initiative. Yin hoped that foreign nationals would continue to expand their business in Beijing to motivate an increasing number of overseas enterprises and talents to invest and start businesses in Beijing, thereby promoting the high-quality development of relevant industries. Beijing, with a recorded history of over 3,000 years ago, has served as the seat of government for more than 870 years. It is a world-renowned historical and cultural city as well as a modern international metropolis. It is hoped that everyone will gain a deeper understanding of Beijing and tell engaging stories about Beijing, so as to promote international people-to-people exchanges, and communication and mutual learning among civilizations and cultures.

Yin Li emphasized that Beijing will continue to open wider to create a better environment for international talents. Efforts will be made to provide higher-quality services, including procedures for entry and exit, mobile payments, residence permits, and mutual recognition of professional qualifications. It will also provide more efficient and convenient services in multiple languages for the living, education, transportation, and medical care needs of the families of foreign talents in Beijing. Moreover, it’s necessary to build more international apartments, schools, and hospitals, thus offering supporting comprehensive services. Foreign-language signs and maps in public places will be further improved to make the city more international. Additionally, continuous efforts will be made to optimize the business environment, fostering a market-oriented, law-based, and convenient business environment in keeping with international standards.

The Great Wall Friendship Award stands as the only and most prestigious honor bestowed by Beijing Municipality upon foreign nationals in the city. Since its establishment in 1999, a total of 221 individuals from 32 countries have received this accolade. Before the symposium, the award-winners visited Shougang Park.

Municipal leaders You Jun, Zhao Lei, Yu Yingjie, and Mu Peng, Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government were present.

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Winners of the 16th Great Wall Friendship Award

1. Carl-Alexander Scheef

German, Vice President of Bayer Healthcare Company Limited

2. Karl Deppen

German, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck Holding AG, Chairman of Daimler (China) Commercial Vehicle Investment Company Limited

3. Nathan Richard Stoner

American, Global Vice President of Cummins Inc., Chairman of Cummins China

4. Juergen Peter Schmitz

German, CEO of ERGO China

5. Joseph Knighton Hoskin

American, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Beijing International Resort Company Limited, Theme Park and Resort Management Branch

6. Sergio Cecotti

Italian, Researcher of Yanqi Lake Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications

7. Mark Van Loosdrecht

Dutch, Visiting Professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands

8. Tatsuo Arai

Japanese, Professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, Chief Expert of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems (BAICIRS), Founding President of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC)

9. Antonius Bisseling

Dutch, Distinguished Professor and Chief Scientist at Beijing University of Agriculture, Professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands

10. Francesco Faiola

Italian, Head of Stem Cell Toxicology Research Group, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environments Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

11. Wong Tien Yin

Singaporean, Vice-Provost of Tsinghua University, Director of the School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

12. Matthias Korell

German, Visiting Professor of Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University, Head Physician and Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Johanna Etienne Hospital in Germany

13. Sten Vermund

American, Honorary Professor at Capital Medical University, Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine

14. Laszlo Vajda

Hungarianl, Professor and Senior Expert, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports (Beijing Institute for International Olympic Studies)

15. Vladimir Malakhov

Austrian, Professor at Beijing Dance Academy