December 26, 2025 — The 2nd Assistive Device Innovative Technology Application Competition, part of the 2025 Belt and Road & BRICS Skills Development and Technological Innovation Competition, was grandly inaugurated in Lingang High-tech Zone, Yueyang City, Hunan Province.Dr. Peng Jianbiao, UN Consultative Affairs Officer of the China International Council for the Promotion of Science and Technology and Executive Chairman of the International Regional Innovation and Standardization Alliance, was appointed Chief Referee of the competition. He took full charge of event organization, referee judging, technical evaluation and standard support work. Focusing on regional innovation collaboration, international standard alignment and skilled talent cultivation, he helped ensure the competition was held at a high level, high quality and high standard.
Co-hosted by the Chinese Council of the BRICS Business Council, the Belt and Road & BRICS International Alliance for Skills Development and other institutions, the competition focuses on the innovation and technical application of assistive devices. It gathers participants from dozens of colleges and institutions across the country for theoretical assessments and practical skill competitions. It serves as a key platform for advancing technology-assisted disability support, vocational education global outreach and international skill exchanges.
As Chief Referee, Dr. Peng Jianbiao noted that the assistive technology competition is not only a contest of technical prowess, but also a comprehensive test of standard implementation, innovation achievement transformation and humanistic care. The Alliance has long committed itself to international regional collaborative innovation, technical standard formulation, international talent exchange and industrial standard docking. Its in-depth participation in the competition as both referee organizer and standard supporter embodies the practice of integrating standardization, normalization and internationalization into skill competitions and the development of the assistive device industry.
He pointed out that the assistive device industry is advancing toward intelligence, lightweight design, universal compatibility and internationalization, creating an urgent need for unified technical specifications, testing methods and service standards. Taking this competition as an opportunity, the Alliance will advance three major initiatives:
1. Joint Standard Formulation：Cooperate with universities, enterprises and research institutions to develop association standards and regional standards for technology-assisted disability support and assistive device application, and promote their promotion and implementation among countries along the Belt and Road.
2. Joint Talent Training：Relying on the BRICS Competition and the Alliance’s international cooperation network, build a cross-border industry-education integration platform to cultivate high-quality skilled talents with professional know-how, standard literacy and global vision.
3. Joint Industrial Advancement：Take the transformation of competition achievements as the starting point to accelerate the real-scenario application of innovative assistive technologies, empower the industrial chain through standards, and enhance China’s international competitiveness and discourse influence in the field of disability-assisting technologies.
At the opening ceremony, contestants and referees took a solemn oath. You Hong, former Director of the Rehabilitation Department of China Disabled Persons’ Federation, declared the competition open. Adhering to the principles of fairness, impartiality and openness throughout the event, the competition strictly abided by technical regulations and scoring criteria. Leading the referee team, Dr. Peng Jianbiao conducted judging in a professional, rigorous and objective manner, safeguarding the authority and credibility of the competition.
In the future, the International Regional Innovation and Standardization Alliance will continue to function as an international bridge, standard platform and innovation hub. It will deepen cooperation with BRICS and Belt and Road countries, organically integrate skill competitions, standard development, industrial innovation and technology-assisted disability support, and contribute to the high-quality development of undertakings for persons with disabilities and the international development of skilled talents.
