Top choice for companies from home and abroad

Chengdu, an economic star in western China, is drawing companies and talents from home and abroad with its solid industrial foundation, vast opportunities and strong cultural atmosphere.

Jean-Francois Vallee, manager of the France-headquartered Ubisoft Entertainment SA's Chengdu studio, has been in the Sichuan city for eight years and has started a family there.

Ubisoft is a creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services.

Vallee started his career with Ubisoft in 1997. In 2005, he went to the company's Shanghai studio, hoping to learn more about China and its long history.

Staff at HitGen, a startup high-tech firm founded by professionals who returned from overseas. It has consolidated its foothold in Chengdu.

Three years later, Vallee moved to Chengdu to build the company's second production studio in China from the ground up, starting with fresh graduates hired from the city.

Located in the Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, Ubisoft Chengdu is 200-people strong today and has become one of the biggest studios in western China.

Vallee said the Chengdu studio participated in the development of many exciting gaming projects and has achieved great success.

The studio made significant contributions to 3A games such as Assassin's Creed Syndicate and the record-breaking Tom Clancy's The Division. Its first mobile game, Monkey King Escape, surpassed 2 million downloads in Asia alone.

"Experts say that they expect the gaming industry in China to continue soaring, with more and more players; this will definitely have a great impact on the status of Chengdu as a city filled with game developers," said Vallee.

The city is one of the major bases for game development in China. Hundreds of game-developing companies gather in its technology parks, including Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, Chengdu Hi-tech Incubation Park, and ThinkZone.

"Some may know Chengdu as a calm and slow-paced city. For me, it's a place that continuously challenges and inspires," Vallee said, adding that he is proud to call Chengdu home.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA's Chengdu studio has staff from around the world.

Li Jin, former global director of compound and computational sciences at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca plc, established a bio-tech company, HitGen Ltd, at the Tianfu Life Sciences Park in the Chengdu high-tech zone in 2012.

He is a fellow of the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Chemistry.

Li said he chose Chengdu because of its solid foundations in biotechnology. In addition, the Chengdu government provided his startup projects with plenty of support. For example, they offered free office space for three years, setup funds and various subsidies.

The city is home to 53 universities and 30 national-level research institutes. The West China Medical Center of Sichuan University and its many hospitals and research arms are the country's top medical schools and hospitals.

Since its establishment, Hit-Gen has signed cooperation deals with more than 10 global bio-pharmaceutical firms.

In September, the company announced a multi-target global collaboration with Janssen Biotech Inc, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

This collaboration aims to discover potential new therapies in areas of strategic interest to Janssen, especially in the areas of oncology and metabolics.

As part of the agreement, HitGen's technology platform, centered around design, synthesis, screening, and hit validation, will be deployed to find new small-molecule hits and leads for therapeutic targets identified by Janssen.

Lyu Guotao, born in 1978 in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province in Northeast China, stayed in Chengdu after he graduated from Sichuan University.

He is founder and CEO of iBaby, a platform that gathers obstetricians from around the country to provide professional consulting services for expectant mothers.

iBaby staff at office answer a mother's online question.

Launched in May 2015, the iBaby application already has 1.2 million expectant mother users and 100,000 obstetrician users, half of the whole country's obstetricians.

"Research shows that 30 percent to 40 percent of patients don't need to go to the hospital. The iBaby app popularizes general medical and health knowledge among expectant mothers, helping to save medical resources and easing the burden on hospitals," he said.

Lyu said his company will set up branches around the country next year, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong province. He expects the number of expectant mother users to reach 5 million in the first half of next year.

The company has received 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) angel investment and is about to finish the B round financing.

Lyu said he has stayed in Chengdu because of the city's strong cultural atmosphere, as well as the opportunities created with the implementation of the "Go West" campaign, as well as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives.

He also appreciates the local government's support in finance and business promotion.

"Chengdu is taking a lead in the country regarding innovation and entrepreneurship. It is attracting an increasing number of talents from around the world to work and start businesses here," he said.

(China Daily 11/03/2016 page7)