BEIJING, March 4 (INP): Pakistan, China have agreed through initial communication to hold over 100 events to mark the anniversary in a wide range of areas including the political, economic, trade, cultural and military sectors.

This was announced by Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry here at a news briefing.

The detailed list, once confirmed, will be released as soon as possible. Of course the commemorative activities will go far beyond the list.

People from all walks of life in both countries, especially the young generation, are welcome to take an active part to enrich the celebrations and make them more broad-based and fruitful.

With our concerted efforts, we will surely carry forward the traditional friendship, expand and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, bring the two peoples closer, and achieve greater development in the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan.

On March 2, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended together with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi a virtual ceremony simultaneously held in Beijing and Islamabad to launch celebration of the 70th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic ties and delivered an address.

The two sides also unveiled a logo to mark the occasion. This event officially commenced a series of commemorative activities throughout the year, he added.

According to the report, the spokesperson said while responding to a question that China remains the top user of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system with 68,720 applications for 16.1% year-on-year growth, higher than the rate of 10.6% in 2019. The top filer has been a Chinese company for the fourth consecutive year. The top 10-university list for PCT applications comprises five universities from China.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, the number of Chinese patent application filings through the PCT system has continued to grow. This attests to the prominent progress in China's IPR and epitomizes the continuous improvement of China's innovation capability and public awareness of intellectual property, indicating China's transformation from a major IPR importer into a major IPR creator.

According to recent data released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), China granted 530,000 invention patents in 2020, up by 17.1% year on year. China retains its 14th place in the 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII), remaining the only middle-income economy among the 30 top-ranking countries.

As China has entered a new development stage, it is putting in practice the new development philosophy and formulating a new development paradigm, which would not be possible without the strong support of IPRs.

No country can become an independent innovation center or enjoy fruits of innovation alone; innovation should benefit the world rather than being encaved. China stands ready to work with other countries to strengthen scientific innovation and cooperation, actively participate in global IPR governance, and contribute more to the balanced, inclusive and sustainable development of global IPRs.

INP/JAVED