A two-day high-level forum on development and innovation dynamics in Zhongguancun of Beijing opens today, at the city's China National Convention Center.

China's State Council has approved a plan to make Zhongguancun a pilot over the next decade in intellectual innovation, hence, the 2011 Zhongguancun Forum.

The forum will have an opening ceremony, various speeches, six individual forums, a reception banquet, and a round table conference.

Some noted figures in the world of innovation and related fields have been asked to speak at the opening ceremony, such as Hartmut Michel, a German scientist who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry, and David J.Gross, who got the Nobel for physics.

The forum's hosts are the Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, the State Council Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, State Intellectual Property Office, and the Beijing municipal government.

High-level officials who have been asked to join the organizing committee, include Hua Jianmin, vice-minister, National People's Congress Committee; and Wan Gang, minister of science and technology.

The forum has gained a name, in part, for having been a close-follower of the Zhongguancun's rapid development.

The six sub-forums each have a theme, for example, how science and technology changes life; tech-finance and the development of emerging industries; how innovation makes life better; intellectuals, innovation and development; brands and innovation; intellectual property industry and innovation.

The organizing committee invited successful people from various fields to speak and share their ideas, on the spot, to provide a different focus for the event.

The Zhongguancun administrative committee made some changes for this year's event by asking different departments to host these forums, to make things more efficient.

For example, the "how technology changes life" forum was organized by Beijing's Science and Technology Bureau; the finance forum was handled by the Haidian district government; and the "innovative intellectuals and development" forum was given to the Zhongguancun Information Technology Intellectual Assoc.

In this way, Zhongguancun's resources could be more fully used and every single part of the zone could be mobilized for the forum.

Officials explained that the 2011 Zhongguancun Forum is expected to increase communications and cooperation with more people overseas, in the innovative business and related sectors, to make Zhongguancun and China more powerful in global innovation and to boost the zone's development.