The 26th China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) kicked off on Thursday in south China's tech hub of Shenzhen, with over 4,300 new products and technologies expected to debut.
As China's leading technology show, the three-day CHTF attracts nearly 5,000 well-known enterprises and international organizations from more than 100 countries and regions across the globe. It is estimated that up to 400,000 professional visiting trips will be handled.
With the total exhibition area topping 300,000 square meters, this year's CHTF has set up 22 exhibition halls for various sectors such as AI and robotics, low-altitude economy and aerospace, future technologies and smart cities, and new materials, showcasing a number of the latest high-tech products and technologies.
In particular, five exhibition halls, like China's Leading Heavy Equipment, Top Tech Industry Chains, and Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Financial Services, have been set up for the first time.
The event will host more than 160 meetings and activities such as major national achievement release and global buyer-supplier matchmaking conference, with more than 4,300 brand-new technologies, products and achievements to be released.
"For example, there are transactions reflecting cloud-based industrial software that features our new system for mobilizing resources nationwide, and transactions reflecting embodied AI-powered robot hands that highlight the growth point of AI development in Shenzhen and even China, as well as all technologies of the trillion-yuan-level new blue ocean -- low-altitude economy that is being formed in China, including Shenzhen. All of them are on display here. All these new quality productive forces will present the robust power of China's economy to the world in the mode of commercial transactions at the High-Tech Fair," said Zhang Lin, head of the Science, Technology and Innovation Bureau of Shenzhen City。
More than 30,000 institutions and organizations around the world, including government departments, central state-owned enterprises, business associations, research institutes, universities, and multinational companies, will organize delegations to visit and purchase at the grand event.
The number of professional purchasing groups exceeds 1,000 with over 40,000 professional visitors.
26th China Hi-Tech Fair opens in Shenzhen to showcase latest achievements
Syria's long-drawn-out crisis has led to the collapse of its electricity infrastructure and a sharp decline in conventional energy resources.
Since the onset of the civil war, the country's electricity supply has fallen to less than 25 percent of pre-war levels.
The destruction of power plants and critical infrastructure, coupled with difficulties in securing the fuel required to operate them, has left Syria's total power generation at under 2,000 megawatts.
This limited supply must be distributed across more than 13 provinces. Yet, electricity is essential to both the country's economy and its people's daily life.
Prolonged power outages have placed a heavy burden on the Syrian population, forcing many to turn to private generators and batteries to produce and store energy.
In Zamalka, a town in rural Damascus, it has endured over 13 years without government-provided electricity where residents rely on private generators and solar power to meet their energy needs.
The sound of generators in this town is deafening, yet the machines are a lifeline for people who want to live here.
The government electricity grid is mostly damaged, and people count on alternative transmission lines to deliver power to homes plunged in darkness.
"The war has destroyed the power grid, which the government has not fixed, so people have started to connect cables from generators to their houses. But the problem is that people cannot afford it. It costs 50,000 to 60,000 Syrian pound (around 3.9 to 4.6 U.S. dollars) a week to power just one light bulb," said Bassam Qaddour, mayor of Zamalka Town in Rural Damascus.
The long power outage also impacts businesses, as this area hosts numerous workshops.
Ibrahim Hajo is a blacksmith. He said he pays more than 600 U.S. dollars a month for electricity from private generators nearby to run his machines, as the government has not provided power for years.
"The cost of the final product is increasing. Before the war, I only had to pay my cost and the cost of raw materials. But now I have to add electricity, so the final cost is drastically increasing," he said.
Power outages are not the only problem in the energy sector. Fuel shortages are another protracted issue that's impacted the daily life of Syrians for years, especially in terms of affordability and availability.
The streets of Damascus are full of smuggled gasoline bottles and gas cylinders from neighboring countries. They are used to alleviate the shortages in fuel nationwide.
But prices are high when compared with the median income, which is no more than 25 U.S. dollars per month for households.
"The prices must be lowered. They are too expensive for the citizens regarding what they earn," said a resident named Yaser Khoder.
Strengthening the country's energy infrastructure and ensuring availability of fuel will be the main challenge for the new government in Syria.
It's a mission that requires restoring the nation's oil and gas fields, which are both still out of the government's control.
Syrians face energy crisis
