THE upcoming XIX International Botanical Congress (IBC) taking place in Shenzhen will bring not only hundreds of botanical experts to town, but also a newly founded national alliance of agricultural genomics and an array of health-related projects, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

The alliance, known as the National Agricultural Genomics Technology Innovation Alliance, is being led by the Ministry of Agriculture with the aim of solving the key technological challenges of agricultural genomics in China. The alliance is going to be inaugurated at the opening ceremony of the International Botanical Congress on July 23 in Shenzhen.

The alliance already has 66 member institutions, including top universities like Peking University, China Agricultural University and other national-level agricultural research institutes. A number of domestic and international agricultural technologies firms, such as Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co. Ltd. and the Swiss company Syngenta, have acceded to the alliance.

It was explained that the alliance would be responsible for conducting research for key projects in the national technology plans relating to agricultural genomics and also for boosting the development and innovation of agricultural technologies in China.

According to Qian Wanqiang, deputy director of the Biological Breeding Innovation Center in Shenzhen, the city is an ideal place for the alliance to settle, because Shenzhen has strong IT, finance and technology innovation sectors, which provide a perfect environment for IT and biotechnology to converge.

Qian explained that, during the IBC (July 23-29), his center would arrange tours of the base for biological breeding in Dapeng New Area and that he hopes the activities will become a routine agenda even after the congress.

Besides the alliance’s inauguration in Shenzhen, the IBC is also bringing opportunities for the health industries. So far, 12 companies and medicine groups from Switzerland, Sweden, the U.S., and other cities in China have expressed the intention to sign deals with the Shenzhen government on health projects.

(Zhang Qian)