On June 8, CAAC and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly signed the Outline of the Joint Action Plan for the Building of China's New Generation of Smart Civil Aviation Driven by Independent Innovation (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) in Beijing. Feng Zhenglin, Administrator of CAAC, and Wang Zhigang, Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, jointly signed the Outline. Cui Xiaofeng, Deputy Administrator of CAAC, and Xiang Libin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology attended the signing ceremony.

According to the Outline, CAAC and the Ministry of Science and Technology will work to promote the building of a smart civil aviation industry, by tackling the key deficiencies restricting the development of the civil aviation industry, enhancing the supporting and leading role of science and technology, and stepping up the construction of scientific research infrastructure in the civil aviation industry. Seven major tasks were identified which will address civil aviation safety, airworthiness certification, satellite-based CNS systems, smart airports, smart ATC, smart aircraft operation and transportation service, and system for sci-tech innovations in the civil aviation sector, with the aim to develop a batch of key and core technologies and equipment that are self-developed and controllable, and build top-notch sci-tech innovation capability in the civil aviation industry by 2025, so as to provide strong sci-tech support for building a civil aviation powerhouse.