, Beijing, Oct. 17 (Wang Yanhua, Intern Liu Yiran) -- Sponsored by China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), the 2019 World Conference on Science Literacy (WCSL) was held in Beijing on October 16, 2019. In his speech, Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of CPPCC and President of CAST, elaborated on the important significance of the theme of this Conference -- "Science Literacy for Sustainable Development". He hoped to join hands with all nations to carry out deeper cooperation and to achieve more fruitful results, thereby playing a greater role in improving public science literacy across the world.
Wan mentioned the 1st WCSL held in Beijing in September 2018, as well as the "Beijing Declaration for Promoting Public Science Literacy across the World" released and the fruitful results achieved at WCSL 2018. He said that more than 600 guests from 5 international organizations and 28 countries, including those from political, industrial and academic circles, had been invited to the WCSL of this year to jointly discuss ways to push ahead cooperation and development.
Wan said that under the theme of "Science Literacy for Sustainable Development", WCSL is committed to contributing towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, pushing ahead the experience and resource sharing between nations in such fields as science education, communication and popularization, jointly improving public science literacy, and promoting the sustainable development of human society.
He stressed that the world today is undergoing stupendous changes unseen in a century -- on one hand, science, technology and innovation have ushered in unprecedented advances which are profoundly transforming the development landscape across the world and the ways we work and live; on the other hand, global challenges threatening the sustainable development of human society are getting increasingly prominent and have become the common concern of all nations.
Wan stated that CAST as an organization of scientists and engineers is willing to join hands with partners and counterparts from all over the world to promote the founding of the World Organization for Science Literacy, to jointly improve the public science literacy across the world, to promote the realization of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to make positive contributions to the sustainable development across the globe.
