Irish entrepreneur says China accelerating pace towards innovation center

Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of Web Summit and Collision, speaks in an interview during the Collision tech conference in Toronto, Canada, June 27, 2023. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

"China is by far and away the center of innovation in our world today, and it's accelerating," says Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of the highly popular Web Summit and Collision tech conferences.

TORONTO, June 28 (Xinhua) -- An Irish entrepreneur said here on Tuesday that China is accelerating its pace to be the center of innovation.

Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of Web Summit and Collision, two of the world's largest and fastest-growing tech conferences, on Tuesday lavished praise on China's role in promoting innovation, saying, "China is by far and away the center of innovation in our world today, and it's accelerating."

Paddy Cosgrave (R), co-founder of Web Summit and Collision, speaks in an interview during the Collision tech conference in Toronto, Canada, June 27, 2023. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

At the ongoing Collision tech conference in Toronto, the Irish entrepreneur told Xinhua that China has established a stunning lead in high-impact research across most critical and emerging technology domains, citing the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Critical Technology Tracker.

The Australian think tank finds that China is further ahead in more technologies than has been realized. It's the leading country in 37 of the 44 technologies evaluated, often producing more than five times as much high-impact research as its closest competitor, the institute said.

"That will lead to an increasing discourse in the West about what the West is going to do to at least try and catch up and even keep pace with China. Because right now, the evidence would suggest that it's not," Cosgrave said.

People visit start-ups' booths during the 2023 Collision Conference in Toronto, Canada, on June 27, 2023. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

Cosgrave hoped to host future Web Summit events in Chinese cities and get more speakers and participants onto the stages, saying that "the world of tech keeps growing. The world is changing, and it's good to do events outside Europe and North America."

Cosgrave said he has not seen any Chinese speakers at recent events due to the COVID-19 pandemic but anticipates their return at the Web Summit in Lisbon this November.

Committed to creating software that enables connections in the business world, Web Summit events have gathered half a million people worldwide since its beginning as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009.