Global delegates celebrate event's success

Chengdu fair provides deal, cooperation and exchange platforms

The 2015 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, or GIEF, which is believed to be the first event of its kind in China focusing on entrepreneurship, finished on Nov 11.

Delegates from 30 countries and regions, including government officials, world-renowned innovation teams, investors, companies, universities and research institutes, reached a consensus at the fair, which was named the "Chengdu Consensus".

The consensus said that innovation and entrepreneurship is an eternal theme for the development of human society, is a powerful engine for economic development and is part of the development strategy of the world's major economies. It is the major force to stimulate the vitality of cities and promote their development and is a common language of all nations and an important bridge for international cooperation and exchanges.

Delegates said the GIEF promoted the gathering, integration and exchange of innovation and entrepreneurship resources and elements worldwide. Participants said they expect the platform to play a greater role in international cooperation and exchanges of innovation and entrepreneurship.

During the GIEF, Chengdu Center Promotion Productivity signed an agreement with three organizations and officially launched the Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Trading Platform. The platform will provide entrepreneurs with services, including transaction and exchanges of equity, products, talents and resources.

More than 150 investment organizations took part in the roadshow and trade fair that followed, which involved 2,686 entrepreneurship programs. Some 109 deals worth 5.32 billion yuan ($830 million) were made.

Sixteen entrepreneurial teams, from the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Israel and China's Beijing, Shenzhen, Xi'an and Chengdu, joined the global finals of the Jingrong Cup-Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest. They were chosen from 200 programs from around the world during the past two months.

A program called "Snail Sleep" from Beijing won first prize, while "Trendi" from Israel took second, followed by the "Finger Vein Recognition Technology" project from Chengdu in third.

A city of innovation

As host of the GIEF, Chengdu demonstrated its charm as a city of innovation and entrepreneurship and won praise from guests from home and abroad.

Zhang Zhihong, director of the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said Chengdu was famous for its delicious food, rich culture and good lifestyle, and now it is also renowned as an entrepreneurial city.

Carmen Cano de Lasala, deputy head of the EU delegation to China, said she has been to Chengdu nine times since 2006 and she is impressed by the dynamic, open city and the development it has gone through in past years.

"Chengdu is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing cities in China. I'm glad to see so many European companies choose Chengdu as their top investment destination and achieve great development here," she said.

Alvaro Simon De Blas is rotating president of EBN, a network of about 150 quality-certified EU business and innovation centers and other organizations that support innovative entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs. He said he believes Chengdu has a very bright future in terms of innovation and the development of SMEs.

"Chengdu is attractive to our members, with its long and good relationship with the European Union and excellent environment for innovation and entrepreneurship," he said.

Zhu Min, founder and chairman of Cybernaut Investment Group, said Chengdu's innovation and entrepreneurship environment benefits from the government's strong support and good services, and the ecological and cultural environment.

Zhu said Cybernaut plans to invest 10 billion yuan in Chengdu to help local companies enter the world stage. The group aims to cultivate companies with sales of more than 10 billion yuan in three years.

The city has made great achievements in innovation and entrepreneurship this year.

The first nine months of this year saw an increase of more than 8,300 technology enterprises, according to the city's statistics bureau. During the first eight months, the city received more than 39,900 applications for patents, up 29.5 percent year-on-year.

Chengdu created a brand event titled "Venture Tianfu-Jingronghui", which serves as a communication platform for innovators, investors and entrepreneurs. More than 60 activities were held in the name of the event in the first three quarters of the year.

About 300 venture investment institutions, 6,000 startups and more than 10,000 university students and innovators participated in the events. Deals involving investment intentions worth 960 million yuan for 89 projects presented at the events were signed.

In August, the Chinese version of Fortune magazine listed Chengdu among the top 10 innovative Chinese cities.

In June, Chengdu was named as one of the 15 model cities for innovation and entrepreneurship of small and micro-enterprises by five central government departments.

Contact the writers through pengchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/18/2015 page24)