Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone of China and Sophia Antipolis of France Jointly Promote Innovation

NICE, France, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sophia Antipolis, the French "Silicon Valley", have signed a cooperation agreement to become "sister technology parks."

Sophia Antipolis is the largest technology park in Europe and has amassed about a thousand hi-tech organizations and research-oriented enterprises. Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone is one of China's most famous technology parks and is renowned as the "Silicon Valley of Western China".

The two parties will undertake exchanges and collaborations in areas such as technological innovation, commerce, trade and investment, and function as each other's window for cooperation in their respective home countries. The signing took place at the Sino-French Scientific and Technological Enterprise Future Leadership Forum ("the Forum"), held in the French city of Nice. At the Forum, it was also announced that the Sophia Antipolis China Innovation Center will be established in the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

A high-ranking government official who attended the Forum and addressed the audience noted that advocating for the cooperation between the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sophia Antipolis technology parks, as well as strengthening exchanges between young Chinese and French entrepreneurs, will be conducive to explorations in new Sino-French collaboration mechanisms and the deepening of relations between France and China.

Pierre Laffitte, the founder of Sophia Antipolis, said, "Cooperation between us and Chengdu, especially between Sophia Antipolis and Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, continues to deepen. The signing of this agreement is the beginning of a full-spectrum of in-depth cooperation between the two sides. We look forward to forming transnational industry clusters in sectors such as biomedicine, information technology, new energy and environmental protection."