The 2021 China-Africa Innovation Cooperation Conference, hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Hubei Provincial People's Government was opened on December 12, in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province on the theme of "embracing a brighter future through innovation cooperation". The conference takes place on the context of acting on the messages communicated during the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC and important address delivered by President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to facilitate closer cooperation and exchanges in science and technology with Africa and other countries along the Belt and Road Initiative as the part of efforts to jointly build a China-Africa community with a shared future.

Mr. Wang Zhigang, Minister and Secretary of CPC Leading Group, MOST,  and Mr. Ying Yong, Party Secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of Hubei Provincial People's Congress, addressed the conference. Mr. Wang Zhonglin, Governor of Hubei Province and Deputy Party Secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee, conferred Hubei Provincial Offshore Centers for International Science and Technology Cooperation (Technology Transfer). Mr. Zheng Xin, Vice President of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (hereinafter referred to as "YOFC", Stock Code: 601869.SH, 06869.HK) was present on behalf the company to accept the honor.  

In order to implement important instructions from Secretary General Xi Jinping on working to fit in  the global innovation network through the combination of "bring-in" and "going-out" strategies, it is explicitly specified by Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC and Hubei Provincial People's Government that a number of offshore centers for international technology cooperation and technology transfer  should be put in place to develop an open network for cooperation and innovation at home and abroad and to promote international technology collaboration. In August 2021, the experts organized by the Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province in relation to international technology cooperation, researched and determined that 5 Hubei Provincial Offshore Centers for International Technology Cooperation (Technology Transfer) would be established in Africa as sub-centers of the China-Africa Innovation Cooperation Center.

Among the centers, the (South Africa) Offshore Center for International Technology Transfer of Optical Fibre and Cable Manufacturing Technology got off the ground backed by YOFC and its overseas subsidiary Yangtze Optics Africa Cable (Pty) Ltd. It aims to develop and spread generic technologies of the optical fibre and cable industry, speed up the transfer of optical fibre and cable technology and the commercialization of technological achievements in China, and leverage advanced technologies to upgrade the optical fibre and cable industry in Africa. The center is also expected to develop as an overseas pre-incubation and accelerator base for high-tech projects, making headway in talent training and exchanges, technological R&D and cooperation, and international market expansion of enterprise.

Guided by the mission of “Smart Link Better Life”, YOFC will stick to the pursuit of innovation-drive development, and internationalization strategy. In this regard, it will harness the offshore R&D center to integrate and connect with domestic R&D innovation system. This can be the right path toward mutually beneficial landscape through more extensive exchanges and cooperation.