SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese American engineers have an important role to play in advancing the US-China relationship, said industry experts at a conference in Silicon Valley on Saturday.

"In the complex landscape of the semiconductor industry, there are two constants -- change and trust. China American engineers, who are good at adapting themselves to changes, have a big role to play in nurturing trust," said Chi-Foon Chan, president and co-CEO of Synopsys, a Silicon Valley company developing electronic design automation (EDA) software for semiconductor design.

Chan made the remarks in his speech at the 2019 annual conference of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Chinese Institute of Engineers/USA (CIE) held Saturday in Santa Clara, California.

"Artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change the jobs market, and replace many competitive jobs, but what can't be replaced is collaboration based on trust," said Chan. "Trust is in different forms -- in business, public policies and other areas," he added.

The conference, with the theme of "Inspiring," attracted hundreds of people from the Chinese American engineering and business communities.

Under CIE, which was founded in 1917, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter was established in 1979 to promote technological advancement and networking, as well as engineering and industrial collaborations between the United States and China.

Last year, the chapter organized 29 events, including conferences and seminars on AI, robotics, blockchain and biomedicine, according to Raymond Chen, president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of CIE.

"In the past years, we talked about many technology trends that could impact people's lives. In the 2018 annual conference, we set the theme of 'engineers and their careers in a changing world,' where we focused on the technology-enablers that create new career opportunities in today's market. This year, the 'inspiration' continues," said Chen.

Several renowned speakers were invited to discuss technology trends and shared their careers stories, especially the turning point at which they were inspired.

The speakers included Ye Shuhong, co-founder of Dianping.com, which later merged with Meituan and became a major e-commerce platform for services in China.

"China has a big and diversified market. The middle class is growing bigger and bigger," said Ye.

Citing online meal ordering on his e-commerce website as an example, he told the audience that the Chinese middle-class consumers "need not only a meal, but a lifestyle in the city."

Ye also said there's greater business potential in the third- and fourth-tier cities in China.