Innovation fair wins acclamation

City highlights creative and individual development, Li Yu and Peng Chao report.

The 2016 China (Chengdu) Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair concluded with fruitful results in Chengdu, a mega city in western China, on Sunday.

The annual event, which is an international platform that brings together innovation and entrepreneurship resources and promotes the exchange and transaction of innovative ideas and achievements, attracted delegates from 36 countries and regions around the world. The delegates included government leaders, representatives from Chengdu's sister cities, Nobel Prize winners, and world-renowned scientists, entrepreneurs and investors.

Top scientists in such fields as semiconductor lighting, fundamental particles, astrophysics and artificial intelligence shared their insights on the latest achievements and development trends in frontier science and technology.

The scientists included Arthur B. McDonald, Nobel laureate for physics in 2015, Shuji Nakamura, Nobel laureate for physics in 2014, Wu Hequan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and professor Chen Yanbei from the California Institute of Technology.

Edmund Phelps, winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 2006, and top investors including Andrew Yan, founding member and managing partner of SAIF Partners, and Wu Jun, founding partner of Amino Capital, were invited to share their investment philosophies, experiences and the latest trends.

The event promoted the transaction of technological achievements, equity investment and talent.

More than 40 foreign technological enterprises, universities and technology transfer organizations and 200 from China brought 1,500 programs and achievements to the technological achievement transaction fair, according to Lu Tiecheng, director of the Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau.

The equity transaction fair attracted 600 delegates from equity investment organizations and innovative companies. Seventy Fortune Global 500 companies, leading head-hunting companies, top local enterprises, scientific research teams and universities took part in the talent exchange fair.

More than 3,000 deals worth more than 16 billion yuan ($2.41 billion) in technology trade, equity transactions and employment contracts were signed at the fair, including 1,746 agreements valued at 6.17 billion yuan in technological achievements.

During the equity investment fair, Chengdu Qianhai Industrial Investment Fund, the first government investment fund in Chengdu, was founded, with an investment of 40 billion yuan for the first phase. Representatives also signed 175 equity investment programs worth 10 billion yuan, twice as much as last year.

Some 50 foreign talents reached employment intention with companies at the talent exchange fair.

The 2016 China (Chengdu) Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Exhibition covered 15,000 square meters and attracted 1,000 exhibitors from innovative enterprises, renowned universities, industrial parks and incubators.

The exhibition displayed 51 high-tech innovation programs from Silicon Valley, covering fields such as intelligent hardware, robots, 3-D printing and mobile internet.

During the event, delegates from Chengdu and its 36 international sister cities launched an initiative on innovative cooperation between sister cities. The initiative suggests sister cities deepen relations through innovative cooperation and exchanges, encourage companies to set up research and development centers, conduct innovative venture investment projects with each other, and integrate the innovation resources of their universities and colleges.

The China-ROK Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest and the Chengdu leg of the China-US Young Makers Competition provided perfect platforms for young people to demonstrate their capabilities in innovation and entrepreneurship.

TestBird, a leading mobile game testing service platform based in Chengdu, and Korean company Raonics won the first prize in the former, while in the latter, six out of more than 40 teams were picked for the finals of the China-US Young Makers Competition in Beijing to be staged later this year.

City impresses delegates

Delegates to the innovation and entrepreneurship fair spoke highly of the event and the innovation and entrepreneurship environment in Chengdu.

McDonald was visiting Chengdu for the first time, and said he had formed a very positive impression of the city.

"I'm impressed by the city's history, culture and development plans. It is a good place for scientific research and attracts many international scientists," he said.

McDonald also went to the panda breeding base in Chengdu with his wife. They took pictures of the tiny baby pandas and sent them to their granddaughters.

"This is a very unique experience for us, and we enjoyed it very much," he said.

Philippe Mariani, director of the Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park in France, was at his second Chengdu innovation fair. He said the event this year was bigger and better than the previous one.

"We are strengthening our cooperation with Chengdu as China and Europe are more closely tied to each other," he said, adding that the Sophia Antipolis Science and Technology Park is also holding a similar event next month, which will attract 90 guests from Chengdu.

Mariani said the park is planning to establish a sister-zone relationship with Chengdu High-Tech Zone this year. The two will strengthen cooperation and exchanges in technological innovation and investment, and will co-organize events on innovation and entrepreneurship.

"Obviously everyone coming to Chengdu loves the delicious food and great lifestyle. But when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship, I'm also very impressed," said Carsten Kolbek, co-founder of Startupbootcamp FinTech, a leading startup accelerator in Europe.

Kolbek said he was impressed by the quality of the people in Chengdu and the achievements of local high-tech zones, as well as his partner ThinkZone, a national-level incubator for high-tech startups.

A couple of month ago, Kolbek's company signed a contract with ThinkZone to set up its first accelerator program in China. He said the first program is focused on digital health, but they are also looking at other sectors for further investment.

Chong Joon-Woon, vice-president for investment promotion of Singapore-based Sembcorp Development, said his company chose Chengdu as its investment destination for innovative cooperation.

The company is a shareholder in Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park Development Co Ltd, developer of the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park, an integrated modern new town that serves innovation-driven enterprises and creative talents.

"Chengdu has a strategic position in western China," he said. "It is attracting an increasing number of talents to bring advanced technology and ideas to the city for further development."

Chengdu is one of China's first demonstration bases for innovation and entrepreneurship. It was named by Fortune Magazine as among the "top 10 entrepreneurship cities in China in 2015".

The city held more than 160 Jingronghui activities in 2015 under the Venture Tianfu Project, serving as a communication and transaction platform for innovators, investors and entrepreneurs.

About 400,000 people participated in the activities, and those who presented their new projects and ideas gained a total of 10 billion yuan in investment.

About 249,000 businesses were newly registered in Chengdu in 2015, of which 11,000 were technology enterprises.

Newly registered capital in 2015 totalled 650 billion yuan, an increase of 103 percent year-on-year.

Both the number of newly registered businesses and their total register capital topped figures for central and western China.

Indexes release

The Big Data Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Chengdu) Base of State Information Center released its first Innovation and Entrepreneurship Index on June 24 at the 2016 China (Chengdu) Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair.

The index reflects the innovation and entrepreneurship development of the society based on big data. It helps entrepreneurs and investors find the proper place to do business, and provides the government with a reference for making decisions in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, said Wang Yasong, director of the base.

Wang said the index released this time was specially designed for Chengdu. "The result shows that the innovation and entrepreneurship development of the city has seen sharp growth in the past 21 months," he said.

The innovation and entrepreneurship index of Chengdu grew from 100 points in September 2014 to 279 points in May this year, according to Wang.

Shen Minggao, chairman and chief economist of China Economic and Business Monitor, released the fourth issue of the New Economy Index of China at the fair.

The New Economy Index, which is also based on big data, reflects the development level of China's new economy. Shen said the new economy includes nine major industries, such as new generation information technology, finance, environmental protection, advanced manufacturing and new materials.

The total volume of Chengdu's new economy ranked sixth among all Chinese cities, according to the index.

Contact the writers through pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/29/2016 page24)