On June 12, 2023, the China-Romania Science and Technology Cooperation Conference on Protected Agriculture, hosted by China Science and Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC), and co-organized by the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (USAMV), was held synchronously in Beijing and Romania through a combination of online and offline formats. Under the theme of "Energy Saving, Intelligence and Integration for Win-Win Results", the conference brought together more than 150 representatives of government departments, universities, research institutes and enterprises from 12 countries including China, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with about 200 online viewers.

Mr. Gao Xiang and Ms. Zhuang Jia, Director-General and Deputy Director-General of CSTEC respectively, Mr. Jiang Sudong, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Romania, Mr. Zhou Yu, Head of the Division of Eurasian Affairs, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Ms. Qian Yu, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, CAAS, Mr. Hao Zhiqiang and Mr. Gao Qingzhu, Party Committee Secretary and Deputy Director General of IEDA respectively, Mr. Yang Qichang, Party Committee Secretary of the Institute of Urban Agriculture, CAAS, and Dr. Florin Stanica, Vice-Rector of USAMV, attended the opening ceremony of the conference.

Counsellor Jiang Sudong presented certificates to Romanian academic and management members of the China-Romania Belt and Road joint laboratory, and Vice-Rector Florin Stanica presented certificates to Chinese researchers, in recognition of the positive contributions made by both sides to the development of protected agriculture in China and Romania. The participants shared the research progress, implementation results, and case studies in respect of China-Romania agricultural cooperation. Renowned scholars from CAAS, Beijing Agricultural Machinery Institute and USAMV delivered keynote speeches on topics such as urban agriculture, vertical farming spectral control, NFT cultivation systems, and low-carbon and energy-saving technologies.

The conference aims to strengthen academic exchanges between China and Romania on high and new technologies for protected agriculture, enhance the influence of the China-Romania Agricultural Science and Technology Park and the China-Romania Joint Laboratory for Agricultural Cooperation, and produce practical cooperation results as early as possible by promoting collaborative efforts to tackle key bottlenecks in high and new technologies for protected agriculture. It also strives to become a China-Romania hub of innovation in agricultural science and technology, a center of knowledge and information exchange, and an important platform bringing together top-tier international scholars in agriculture and cultivating top-notch innovative talents in agriculture. The conference has provided new opportunities for the both sides to jointly promote industry-university-research-application collaboration in solving key bottlenecks, increase technological and industrial competitiveness in agriculture, and explore a green agricultural development path that is intensive, efficiency-improving, energy-saving and environmentally friendly.