President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter fully reflects China's high regard for intellectual property rights work, demonstrates China's commitment to jointly advancing international intellectual property protection, injects new momentum into deepening international intellectual property cooperation, and will further tighten the bonds of cooperation, consolidate cooperation consensus, and enable innovation achievements to better benefit humanity.

This conference marks the first time that the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property has been held in China since its establishment, not only reflecting the international community's high recognition of China's historic achievements in intellectual property, but also highlighting China's significant role in the global innovation landscape. In September, the World Intellectual Property Organization released the "2023 Global Innovation Index (GII)" report, which showed that China's ranking in global innovation capabilities rose one place to 12th this year, making it one of the economies with the fastest-rising innovation capabilities over the past decade. China is the only middle-income economy among the top 15 in the Global Innovation Index rankings. China boasts 24 global top 100 innovative clusters, ranking first in the world for the second consecutive year. Since the first "Global Innovation Index" report was released in 2007, China's rankings have been continuously improving, and this year has seen new progress. The continuous rise of China's ranking in the Global Innovation Index reflects the extraordinary achievements of China's innovation development since the new era, and fully proves that the path of intellectual property development with Chinese characteristics is the right one.

Over the years, China has deeply implemented the national intellectual property strategy, accelerated the construction of an intellectual property power, and achieved historic accomplishments in the intellectual property sector. As of the end of the month, the number of invention patents in China reached . million, the number of valid registered trademarks reached . million, and the cumulative number of geographical indication products approved was . In 2020, China's international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) amounted to around 69,000, ranking first globally for the 17th consecutive year. These achievements are the result of the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the outcome of China's continuous increase in R&D investment and promotion of open and inclusive international cooperation, and the result of the intellectual property system's ongoing deepening of reforms, improvement of protection systems, and enhancement of service efficiency.

China's intellectual property protection benefits China and will also benefit the world. Looking ahead, China will engage in more practical and mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries in the field of intellectual property, jointly upholding the multilateral system of intellectual property with the World Intellectual Property Organization at its core. Together, we will promote the improvement of international rules and standards for intellectual property, and work hand in hand to build a global governance framework for intellectual property that is based on consultation, co-construction, and sharing. This will ensure that technological innovations reach more countries and peoples, better enhancing human welfare.

The path of innovation lies ahead, and the responsibility of protection rests on our shoulders. Protecting intellectual property rights is related to the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, to high-quality development, and to the construction of Chinese-style modernization. It is a major strategy concerning the long-term development of our country. On the new journey, we must adhere to the path of intellectual property development with Chinese characteristics, comprehensively strengthen intellectual property protection, stimulate the innovative vitality of the entire society, and provide strong support for advancing Chinese-style modernization.