Fishing village 'fishing' for foreign talent
Guangdong's southern city of Shenzhen, fishing village turned innovation capital, otherwise known as China's Silicon Valley, is in the spotlight again as its municipal government prepares to host "The 1st Innovation Competition of International Talents."
The well-known innovation hub is aiming to boosts its technology-driven economy by luring overseas talents to its innovative base with a series of competitions in their respective cities, with IT, electronics, biology and life sciences, advanced manufacturing and innovative services are just a few of the market segments that the competition will help.
Read on as we explore the cash prizes and incentives that are up for grabs, the industries and contesting projects that the competition covers and why foreign companies should be thinking about setting up a company in Shenzhen!
Massive monetary incentives for the winners
25 finalists entering the competition hail from 5 international cities including Munich, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Silicon Valley and Sydney (check out the press conference video here). These innovative capitals themselves are in the hunt for a share of cash prizes totaling US$880,000.
But that's not all!
To make the deal even sweeter local government incentives totaling US$100 million have been put on the table, and a further pool of US$100 million in a venture capital fund to attract innovative talents to set up shop in China's innovation capital.
First, second and third place winners will receive cash prizes of US$80,000, US$50,000 and US$30,000 respectively to tide them over in their new home!
What makes SZ the ideal place for a competition like this?
Speaking at the Silicon Valley divisional competition early last month, Liu Zhaohui, deputy director of SZ's Longgang District NPC Committee, said "We are is the first city given the title of the 'National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone' in China. It has active enterprise innovation capability and advanced innovative infrastructure, which needs innovative talents to explore opportunities there."
This is a statement that is embodied by the hardware manufacturers' paradise (and innovative base) that is SZ's Qianhai Zone.
A cooperative zone that is strengthening ties between the mainland and the city of Hong Kong, Qianhai itself stands as the ground where winners will benefit from its revolutionary preferential policies, as well as gain access to local incubators, incentives for intellectual property creations and startup tutorship services. It's very important to the Chinese government that more foreign modern service, financial, and high-tech manufacturing companies consider setting up a company in Shenzhen, therefore QianHai offers them the benefits to swing their thoughts away from other areas oreven countries.
Apart from the startups in this competition, the city is also appealing to those starting out their professional careers by offering graduates with bachelor’s degrees 15,000 yuan ($2,320) in housing subsidies – with that figure jumping to 25,000 and 30,000 yuan ($3,867 to $5,414) for those with master’s or PhD’s respectively – if they come to the city and find work.
The emergence of Qianhai, this type of competition and Shenzhen's drive to promote innovation is helping it to cement its place as the prime destination for business in China! Luring foreign investment in Shenzhen and talent to the city will bring added expertise to its business circles, and promote healthy Sino-foreign cooperation that will help it reach heights greater than even Deng Xiaoping envisioned.
The finals will be held between 14-18 April 2016.