Public service facilities drive innovation and training

The Jining National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Jining, Shandong province, is making good use of public service facilities for technological innovation and professional training, such as a production, teaching and research base, creative design center, university science and technology park, software park and cloud-computing center.

"Jining can transform its industry and economy through developing high-tech industries, and it relies on talented people to achieve breakthroughs in such development," said Ma Pingchang, party chief of Jining. "We attach great importance to creating a good living environment, real entrepreneurship and a favorable innovation atmosphere for talent."

Every month, a business plan competition hosted by the government is held in the Jining National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. The winners are supported to realize their plans through "Entrepreneurship Dream Works" - an initiative jointly supported by the government, startup funds from various sources and preferential policies.

"We will make the zone an ideal startup place for youngsters, and an innovative business cluster district," said Bai Shan, deputy mayor in charge of the Jining high-tech zone.

The zone provides a low-cost, convenient, total-factor and open environment for entrepreneurs.

Private funding is encouraged to participate in building further startup incubators, exploring models that combine funding, tutoring and professional services. There are 13 venture capital funds, valued at more than 4 billion yuan ($632 million), for startup companies in innovative technologies in the zone.

In addition, the Jining government said it would seek to foster the development of medium, small and micro-sized enterprises. These measures are aimed at providing professional services and diversified business models for public entrepreneurship and innovative industries in the zone.

In order to promote the innovative integration of technology, industry, finance, management and business models, the zone enhances the cooperation with institutes and universities at home and abroad. Several national and provincial-level high-technology laboratories have been established in the zone, along with engineering and technology research centers, postdoctoral and academician workstations and technological result transfer bases.

The zone is also engaged in the construction of 16 technology platforms, such as the Advanced Technology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Xin Siyu Culture Creative Industry Park. In almost two years, 560 innovative projects have been launched in the zone, with 57 projects winning technological advancement awards above provincial level.

Part of the zone is a platform to attract talented entrepreneurs and make their startup dreams reality through such initiatives as a talent league mechanism and a university park. The talent league unifies policymaking, information exchanges, training, patent technique trading, recruitment and social activities. More than 150 key companies, financial organizations, universities and talent agencies have joined the league, forming a complete human resource industry chain that comprises recruiting, outsourcing, training, consulting and project evaluation.

More than 120 universities, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University and the University of Dayton, have talent cooperation projects with the zone. More than 90 percent of large and medium-sized enterprises in the zone also have cooperative relationships with universities. Among the famous universities in the Jining University Park are Shandong University, the Ocean University of China and Fudan University, which provide specific training programs for more than 1,000 students.

The zone now boasts about 200 senior professional researchers from eight countries and regions, and 62,000 professionals of various levels from China.

In July 2013, the US IT giant HP set up its software talent and industrial development base in the zone, thanks to its favorable investment and business environment. The project, worth $2 billion, is the third-largest investment in Shandong province since its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s.

Xu Tingfu, an official at the investment office of Jining government, said that what attracted HP to the city was Jining's advanced talent concept. "The zone's favorable talent policy is in line with the global IT corporation's development trend," Xu said.

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn