The UNESCO Office in Mexico and the State Government of Guanajuato, Mexico co-organized “the High-Level International Forum: Innovation for Sustainable Development” in Guanajuato on 11-13 September, 2017. More than 50 international experts were invited from China, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, who had expertise in scientific, economic, environmental, educational, intellectual protection and public policies for innovation, to speak in the Forum.

The forum consisted of six different modules and discussed the topics about economic growth, social innovation, environment, educational innovation, social action, intellectual protection, ethic implications and effective innovation policies for sustainable development. On the third day of the forum, five working groups were created on the basis of the five dimensions of the Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and then drafted conclusions, recommendations and an action plan.

Professor Can Huang was invited to deliver a speech with the title “Intellectual Property Rights Policy and Innovation-driven Economic Growth”. His speech consisted of three parts. In the first part, Professor Huang introduced the middle-income trap challenge that China is facing and the innovation-driven development strategy that China has adopted. He also explained the relationship between the challenge, strategy and the IPR policy. Then he introduced the young intellectual property rights system in China and its development. At last, he explained the transformation of China’s IP system with the aim to stimulate innovation, which includes the amendment of“Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements" in 2015, and the Fourth Amendment of the Patent Law. Professor Huang argued that it is important to generate knowledge, but equally important to diffuse the knowledge. He emphasized that it is necessary to incentivize universities and public research organizations to conduct frontier research to address the societal challenges, and promote technology transfer from the public to private sectors as well.