This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2025 shows a scene during the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

HANGZHOU, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit kicked off on Friday morning in the ancient water town of Wuzhen in east China's Zhejiang Province.

This year's edition, themed "Forging an Open, Cooperative, Secure and Inclusive Future of Digital Intelligence -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," includes 24 sub-forums on topics such as the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, digital economy, AI and data governance, along with a series of activities.

Noting innovation, collaboration and trust as key to ensuring an open, inclusive and secure digital future, John Hoffman, CEO of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, told the opening ceremony that: "If we get it right, we will unlock the full potential of the digital to enrich people's lives around the world, leaving no one behind."

During the opening ceremony, a distinguished contribution award was presented to recognize individuals and enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to the global internet landscape.

On Thursday, the WIC honored 17 international projects with its 2025 Awards for Pioneering Science and Technology, in a celebration of their breakthroughs in frontier fields such as AI models, intelligent Internet of Things, embodied intelligence and quantum computing. The winning projects included Microsoft's coding agent GitHub Copilot, Alibaba's open-source foundational large language model Qwen, and the key technologies and applications of China's BDS-3 satellite navigation signals.

This year's WIC Wuzhen Summit will run through Sunday.