People gather at the Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center, the main venue for the 2025 SCO Summit in Tianjin, on August 28, 2025. Photo: VCG

The China-SCO Sci-Tech Innovation Cooperation Center was launched in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, on Thursday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The launch followed the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held earlier this week in North China's Tianjin, and the launch of three SCO cooperation platforms in energy, green industry, and the digital economy and major cooperation centers for higher education and vocational and technical education on Tuesday.

Ten key international cooperation projects for SCO member states were also launched at the center, covering sectors such as biomedicine, high-end equipment, and modern high-efficiency agriculture.

The center will promote people-to-people exchanges in innovation, hold competitions among youth from SCO countries, and foster joint innovation in priority areas including artificial intelligence (AI), digital economy, healthcare, modern agriculture, and climate change, according to CCTV. 

It will also conduct bilateral and multilateral R&D, promote the creation of international joint laboratories, and foster cross-border technology transfer through new platforms and talent cultivation.

At the "SCO Plus" meeting held in Tianjin on Monday, China announced that it would establish three major platforms for China-SCO cooperation in energy, green industry, and the digital economy, as well as three centers for sci-tech innovation, higher education, and vocational training, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday that the partner countries have great expectations for cooperation in these emerging fields, as sci-tech innovations can help overcome development bottleneck.

"China has a solid industrial foundation and global competitiveness in fields such as AI. The launch of the center demonstrates China's willingness to share with SCO countries, fostering joint development and supporting the economic growth of developing nations," Song said.

Global Times