On October 13, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) General Assembly and Global Engineering Conference officially opened at the Shanghai World Expo Center. Co-hosted by WFEO in collaboration with the China Association for Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, the conference, themed “Engineering Shapes a Green Future”, established a platform for exchanging global engineering wisdom with China’s practical experience through a three-day plenary session, two days of forums, and one day of practical workshops.
According to the conference secretariat, the participants covered 21 African countries, 12 European countries and 14 Asian countries and regions. Officials from relevant UN agencies, representatives of engineering academies from 17 countries and leaders of 23 international engineering organizations attended the conference. The scale of participation set a record for the largest full conference in the past decade of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO).
China’s international development cooperation is centered on the core concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind,” emphasizing solidarity and shared responsibility. From the “Belt and Road” to the “Global Development Initiative” and then to the “Global Governance Initiative,” China has continuously explored new models in engineering cooperation. Since joining the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) in 1981, China’s role has evolved from an organizational participant to a governance promoter: During its hosting of the Innovation Technology Committee from 2015 to 2023, it facilitated the establishment of the Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Working Group; in 2019, it collaborated with over 40 countries to establish the “World Day for Sustainable Development”; and in 2023, it established the Secretariat of the WFEO Engineering and Environment Committee at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “China has transformed from a standard follower to a rule contributor within a decade,” commented former WFEO President Martin Chapman in his keynote speech.
During the “Blue Ocean Workshop —— Changxing Marine Equipment Exploration Tour” visit segment, the 180,000-ton LNG carrier displayed by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard became the focus. After on-site inspection, Olaf Nielsen, a senior engineer from the Norwegian Register Society, stated: “The ship’s containment system demonstrates 15% higher thermal insulation efficiency than international standards, and this low-temperature engineering breakthrough holds exemplary significance for global shipping emission reduction.” The technical demonstrations along three additional routes simultaneously sparked discussions: the intelligent operation and maintenance system for urban rail transit networks can reduce fault response time to within two minutes; the integrated photovoltaic building project achieves over 60% self-sufficiency in building energy consumption; while the digital management system for the C919 large aircraft production line achieves assembly precision at the 0.02mm level. Innovations across seven fields form an integrated “sea-land-air-ground” exhibition matrix, vividly showcasing the multifaceted breakthroughs in China’s engineering technology.
Behind these practical cases lie the systematic development achievements in China’s engineering sector. The “Global Engineering Capacity Building White Paper (2025)” released at the conference shows that China has established mutual recognition mechanisms for engineer competency standards with 12 countries including Myanmar and Pakistan, with a total of 32,000 Chinese engineers obtaining “International Professional Certificates”. In the nominated list of “Top Ten Global Engineering Achievements 2025” announced simultaneously, five Chinese accomplishments—including the “Submarine Floating Wind Power Platform”, “Ultra-High Voltage Flexible DC Transmission System”, and “Beidou Navigation Project” —were selected, ranking first globally in terms of proportion. “China’s practices have proven that green engineering is not a technical luxury but a scalable development path,” emphasized Abdullah Han, Director of the Energy Division at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, during the thematic forum.
The technical demonstrations at the parallel forums also demonstrated potential for collaboration. The “Intelligent Engineering Carbon Footprint Accounting System” launched by the Institute of Automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences attracted attention from representatives of multiple countries. This system has been applied in 23 infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, improving carbon emission accounting efficiency by 70%. At the Clean Energy Sub-Forum, the “Joint R&D Agreement on Photovoltaic Technology” signed between LONGi Green Energy and Italy’s State Grid Corporation of Italy became a representative project among the 15 international cooperation agreements signed at the conference. Both parties will jointly develop high-efficiency photovoltaic modules and energy storage integration technologies.
While fully demonstrating its responsibility as a major country and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, China’s engineering cooperation is forming a development model that equally emphasizes “hardware construction” and “capacity building”. This provides a new empirical model for global sustainable development and offers developing countries a new option and reference for exploring development paths suited to their national conditions.
