The Fangchenggang International Medical Opening-up Pilot Zone promotion conference is held on Dec 5 in Fangchenggang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo/People's Daily]

The Fangchenggang International Medical Opening-up Pilot Zone promotion conference was held on Dec 5 in Fangchenggang, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The initiative to set up the Fangchenggang International Medical Opening-up Pilot Zone was put forward during the 19th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in June 2019.

The zone's overall construction plan was released in August. It now covers an area of 53.7 square kilometers and will have three industrial parks for production, cooperation and research and development. It will cast eyes on six major industries including breeding laboratory animals, preclinical medicinal studies and international rehabilitation.

A series of preferential policies have been released by the zone to further optimize the local business environment to serve local companies' development.

Liu Li, chief representative of Sino-Russian Strategic Cooperation Association in China, said that the association will strive for deeper cooperation between Russia and will team up with Eurasian partners to jointly boost the zone's construction.

Liu Tao of Huawei said that Huawei will abide by the strategic cooperation contract it has signed with Fangchenggang to turn the company's technical advantages in areas spanning 5G, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing into a force for building a digital Fangchenggang.