The city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province hosted a Sino-UK research and innovation business matching activity on Jan 19 to focus on smart city service and medical treatment. Delegates from 17 British universities, research institutions and science-tech enterprises, and 85 Wuxi enterprises and institutions attended the event.

Holly White, counsellor of UK's Science and Innovation Network in China, introduced the Newton Fund project, which aims at promoting the economic development and welfare of poor people in partnering countries through science and innovation partnerships in the meeting.

China and the UK announced the plan to establish a 200 million yuan ($30.4 million) research and innovation fund to support various cooperative projects in the next five years.

Several representatives from local universities, institutes and enterprises described the city’s progress in international R&D platform construction. There were 24 enterprise exchanges between Wuxi and UK businesses during the activity.