On November 24, the 3^rd International Conference on Advanced Materials and Equipment Manufacturing (AMEM2024) was held in Bengbu, Anhui Province. It was themed “Creating New Value from New Materials” and co-sponsored by the Anhui Provincial People's Government, the International Commission on Glass, CNBM, and China Baowu Steel Group Corp., Ltd. Han Jun, Secretary of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee, announced the opening of the conference. Zhang Hongwen, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Vice Governor of Anhui, and Zhou Yuxian, Party Secretary and Chairman of CNBM, delivered speeches at the conference. There was a speech from Reinhard Klette, Chairman of the ICG, through video conference. Other attendees included 13 academicians such as Gan Yong and Xu Nanping, as well as officials and guests from municipal/provincial people’s governments, colleges and universities, and companies.

Zhou Yuxian spoke in his speech that the new materials industry is a basic and strategic industry crucial to high-tech competition. In recent years, CNBM has fully played its leading role in China’s new materials industry. While keeping in mind the top priorities of the state, it has developed crucial materials for the country, and built a modern industrial system that centers around basic building materials, new materials, and engineering and technical services. There were especially outstanding advances in new materials. With equal attention paid to strategic rationality and economic rationality, CNBM has created world-class industrial clusters such as those for new materials for glass, high-performance carbon fiber and glass fiber, wind turbine blades, lithium-ion battery separators, advanced ceramics, artificial crystals, new graphite-based materials, and first-rated quartz materials, making positive contributions to China's pillar industries and people's life. Triumph Science & Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CNBM, has achieved world-renowned advances in silicon-based new materials, and has made a series of technological breakthroughs such as the development of 0.12mm thick touch panel glass and 30μm thick flexible glass and put them into industrialized use. This has enhanced the international influence and impact of the glass sector of China's new materials industry.

Zhou Yuxian emphasized that CNBM is a world-leading non-metallic new materials developer and service provider that has a long history of collaboration with Anhui Province. In the future, it will closely focus on the blueprint of Anhui Province’s new materials industry during the 14^th Five-Year Plan period and the systematic development of the new materials industry in northern Anhui through the formation of clusters, fully leverage Anhui's innovative resources, rely on innovation platforms such as the National Glass New Materials Innovation Center, and make comprehensive utilization of multiple investment methods to strengthen the catalyzing and amplifying role of funds. It will also actively make plans for semiconductor materials, glass-based materials, and optoelectronic materials, and boost the development of the new materials industry in northern Anhui to break new grounds from a high starting point, and accelerate the expansion of Anhui's new materials industry with full strength. CNBM will firmly establish pragmatic cooperation with industrial partners at home and abroad, and join hands with them to establish a new ecosystem for industrial development that fully integrates innovation, industrial, capital, and talent chains. This will serve to push for advances in the efforts to construct "three zones for development and one zone for green transformation," accelerate China’s material industry, and make greater contributions to boosting the high-quality development of the global new materials industry.

On November 25, the 4th China Conference on Optoelectronic Materials was held in Bengbu, Anhui. With the theme of “Empowering the Future with Material Innovation,” it was sponsored by the Chinese Silicate Society, the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and the Anhui Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and organized by the Anhui New Materials Industry Association, the Bengbu Municipal People's Government, and the CNBM New Glass Materials Research Institute.

Zhang Hongwen, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Vice Governor of Anhui Province, announced the opening of the conference and unveiled the “China Glass Valley” together with Yan Xiaofeng, Party Secretary and President of the China Building Materials Federation, Gao Ruiping, member of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chairman of the Chinese Silicate Society, Zhou Yuxian, Party Secretary and Chairman of CNBM, Huang Xiaowu, Secretary of the CPC Bengbu Municipal Committee, Peng Shou, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chief Scientist of CNBM, and Chen Guoqing, Deputy Party Secretary and Executive Vice President of China Building Materials Federation.

Zhou Yuxian stated in his speech that, at present, China’s optoelectronic materials sector is flourishing. In 2022, the output of the new display sector exceeded RMB490 billion, accounting for 36% of the total, and the output of the PV industry exceeded RMB1.4 trillion. The optoelectronic materials sector is a vital part of CNBM's industrial clusters of strategic importance. It caters to China’s dual-carbon targets and the strategic big picture of global ecological progress. Over the years, with the robust support of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee, Anhui Provincial People's Government, the CPC Bengbu Municipal Committee and Bengbu Municipal People’s Government, Triumph Science & Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CNBM, has enhanced self-independence and self-reliance on R & D, made a host of technological breakthroughs in key fields, and become one of CNBM’s calling cards.

Zhou Yuxian emphasized that CNMB will closely adhere to the blueprint of Anhui Province, employ national strategic opportunities such as the efforts to develop the country into a tech and materials powerhouse and integrate the Yangtze River Delta, rely on innovation platforms such as the National Glass New Materials Innovation Center and the CNBM New Materials Fund, intensify cooperation with all sectors of society, accelerate high-tech self-reliance in new materials, and jointly create a new ecosystem for industrial development that fully integrates innovation, industrial, capital, and talent chains.