Internet conference to be held in Wuzhen

The 6th World Internet Conference is scheduled to take place from Oct 20 to 22 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China's top cyberspace regulator said on Wednesday.

More than 1,500 guests, including internet experts, scholars, government officials and technology entrepreneurs will attend the conference to share their opinions on cyberspace developments and show their new achievements, according to Liu Liehong, deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Representatives from tech giants including Microsoft and Apple, and domestic internet and technology enterprises such as Huawei and Tencent, will also take part in the conference, he said.

The theme of this year's conference is "Intelligent Interconnection for Openness and Cooperation: Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace". Twenty sub-forums on hot internet-related issues, such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and 5G, will also be held, he said.

Meanwhile, a newly-added worldwide contest called "Straight to Wuzhen" Global Internet Competition will be unveiled during this year's conference, he said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office on Wednesday.

"The competition, as an important platform for participants from home and abroad, aims to stimulate the vitality of internet startups, gathering young talent and promoting the precise and high-quality connection of the internet industry across the world," he said.

"We also hope attendees can make full use of the competition to explore new technologies and new models of the internet business to further contribute to the sharing and common prosperity of the global internet industry," he added.

Amid the events, some reports, including the China Internet Development Report 2019 and the World Internet Development Report 2019, as well as world leading internet scientific and technological achievements, will be released during the conference, according to a statement from the administration.

Sheng Yongjun, Party secretary of the province's Tongxiang county, where Wuzhen township is located, said they have benefited a lot from the World Internet Conference in recent years.

"For instance, we've witnessed lots of new internet products and applications born in our area," he added.

Asked how to deal with ZAO, a face-swapping app that was recently suspected of stealing users' private information, Liu said regulating apps is as important as their development.

"While new apps bring us new opportunities, they also carry risks," he said. "We encourage new developments in the app industry, but through rules and increasing supervision we also fight those illegally collecting users' personal information, as our aim is to protect users' legitimate rights in cyberspace."