From June 17th to 19th, 2016, “G20 Think-tank Conference (T20): Innovation, New Economy and Structural Reform”, upon approval from the Preparatory Committee of the G20 Summit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, was held in Anji, Zhejiang Province, attracting approximately 200 experts and scholars in education, economy, finance and other fields from more than 20 countries or regions, such as China, the United States and Russia.

T20, as one of the key support meetings of G20 summit, serves as a major platform for global think tanks to contribute wisdom and thought to the G20, so it has attracted much attention for its impact on the formulation and implementation of the G20 summit policies. The Conference was co-hosted by Zhejiang University (ZJU), together with the Institute of World Economy and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

Wu Zhaohui, President of ZJU remarked at the opening ceremony, “ZJU has been an active participant of national strategic missions and global common challenges. It is hoped that, relying on T20 platform, together with academic counterparts and think tanks worldwide, ZJU will explore new drive for world economic growth and outline a new chapter for human civilization progress”. Stanley Mutumba Simataa, Chairman of 38th General Conference of the UNESCO and Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Namibia, said in his keynote speech, “The current world is constantly changing; new value system, including the values of global governance, is emerging; accountability and transparency constitute an open economy and new markets are becoming dominant. Investment on innovation, research and development lays the foundation for global competitiveness and sustainable economic development”.

Those who delivered keynote speeches included Du Ping, Executive Deputy Director of Chinese State Information Center, Zhou Guping, Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee, President of China Academy of West Region Development (CAWD) at Zhejiang University, Chen Dongxiao, Dean of Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Wang Jian, CTO of Alibaba Group, Katherine Elizabeth Kirk, Author of Cambridge Phenomenon and Chen Zongnian, President of CETHIK.

There were three parallel forums, namely, “The Belt and Road Initiative and Structural Reforms”, “Innovation Driven and New Economic Development” and “Economic Transformation and Upgrading and Innovative Talent Cultivation”, aimed at gathering great minds to explore the intrinsic relations between innovation, new economy and structural reforms and the solutions to contemporary world economic issues with Chinese experience, thus to provide more strategic options and policy reserves for the G20.