Nine cities in the Yangtze River Delta issued a declaration on deeper cooperation and integrated innovation development in Shanghai’s Songjiang District on Thursday. The “Songjiang Declaration” was issued by the district, Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, Xuancheng, Wuhu and Hefei in Anhui Province and Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Huzhou and Jinhua in Zhejiang Province at the opening ceremony of the 18th Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Forum. It calls for joint efforts by the nine cities to promote the “Innovation China” project initiated by the China Association for Science and Technology to accelerate technology transfer and boost the economy. Under the declaration, the cities will strengthen cooperation to attract talent, gather innovation resources and improve the innovation environment. They will also work to link the supply of technology results with market demand. They will join hands to support development of the G60 High-Tech Corridor. The corridor was initiated by Songjiang in 2016 to form an alliance of nine cities along the G60 Expressway to break regional barriers, promote infrastructure construction, and create a better business and innovation environment. This year’s forum, which ends on Saturday, features meetings and sessions in frontier research such as integrated circuits, biological medicine and artificial intelligence, as well as hot topics such as urban digital transformation, green building and hydrogen energy. It also witnesses cross-border cooperation between countries such as China with Russia and Denmark, as well as international cooperation between local science institutes and multinational companies. Next year’s forum will be in Anhui Province.