A total of 26 innovation and entrepreneurship projects that stood out at the Sixth China (Shenzhen) International Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition will settle in Shenzhen.
The final of the competition, organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, ended recently in Longgang District with 21 contestants from 11 countries and regions, including the United States, Sweden, Portugal and New Zealand, competing for the awards.
An environment protection project based on the carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies from Britain won the top prize of 500,000 yuan (US$72,750 ) at the final.
The event, dubbed the “entrepreneurship Olympics,” attracted 2,144 contestants from 55 countries to compete at 10 sites in 10 countries, including Sydney in Australia, Toronto in Canada, Paris in France, Berlin in Germany, Tel Aviv in Israel, Tokyo in Japan, Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Madrid in Spain, London in Britain and Silicon Valley in San Francisco of the United States, to participate in preliminaries since the event was initiated in October last year.
More than half of the contestants are foreigners. They competed in seven industry categories: new generation electronic information, digital fashion, high-end equipment manufacturing, green and low carbon, new materials, bio-medicine and health, and ocean economy.
The organizer, joining hands with local enterprises, has also arranged reward competitions for industrial software design and research and development in the semiconductor sector.
At the final contests, 26 projects had been signed to settle in Shenzhen. The city will also provide a series of supporting policies to these projects, including a subsidy up to 1 million yuan.
The projects will also be offered rental reductions and subsidies, and enjoy entrepreneurial training, consulting, patent application and talent recruitment services when they settle in Shenzhen’s industrial parks, incubators and entrepreneurial parks for returned overseas students.
Since 2017, 89 countries and regions with a total of 9,423 projects have taken part in the competition. The Seventh China (Shenzhen) International Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition, which will start later this month, will add four cities — Boston, Stockholm, Zurich and Singapore — on its site list for the preliminary contests.