City launches innovation fair

Six featured projects raised $56.5m, Ding Congrong and Lu Zhaoxin report.

Tongchuanghui, a technology fair with the theme of public innovation and entrepreneurship, launched at the Nantong Industrial Technology Institute in Jiangsu province on Sept 8.

The event featured six projects, which raised their targeted total of 360 million yuan ($56.5 million) from 30 investors from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou. The event will run through late this month.

“The projects feature advanced technologies and boosted our investment desire,” said Yang Zhenyu, founder of Feimalv, a company that offers startup support programs. “Senior government officials listened to the presentations by the project leaders, showing the government’s sincere support for innovation,” he said.

One of the projects designs and manufactures cellphone chips.

“About 77 percent of cellphones in the world last year were produced in China, while only 3 percent of cellphone chips were produced by Chinese enterprises,” said Bao Hong, whose team has designed a chip for smartphone cameras and battery charging. The product has received certification from US semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm.

Managers of capital firms learn about high-tech startup business plans during the Tongchuanghui technology fair in Nantong. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

“We want to make high-quality chips with proprietary intellectual property rights so the country’s dependence on imported products can be reduced,” Bao said.

Bao’s project ranked top among the six projects in an appraisal and his team was named the Innovation Star of the event.

As an offline activity by Innovation Nantong, a platform launched on Aug 26 that offers innovation and entrepreneurship services for individuals and startups in Nantong, Tongchuanghui has attracted a number of well-known venture capital firms from around the country, Jianghai Evening News reported.

The fair has made Innovation Nantong the first one-stop innovation service platform in Jiangsu province and a leading venue for innovators and business startups in the country, according to the report.

The event will be held at least once a month and is expected to attract investment for 500 innovation projects annually, according to the Nantong Science and Technology Bureau.

A range of other activities, including experience-sharing seminars, innovation symposiums, a patents forum and training sessions for entrepreneurs were held during the event.

Guests who attended the events included Wang Yonghong, founder of Shanghai MXCHIP Information Technology; Wang Lijie, director of innovative services at Create Point Technology (Shenzhen); and Zhang Yuangang, founder of Shanghai SoftYoung Information Technology.

Zhang Guohua, deputy Party chief and mayor of Nantong; Sheng Yanlin, deputy director of the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology; and Jiang Yuejian, deputy head of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, attended the opening ceremony on Sept 8 and delivered speeches.

The launch of Tongchuanghui is expected to help build a platform for communication and effectively allocate resources such as technology, professionals and funds among innovation projects, Zhang said in his speech.

As an important link in the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which were proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, Nantong needs to seize the opportunities brought by the initiative and its geographic advantages and strive to build itself into a favorite destination for innovators and entrepreneurs, he said.

Nantong will further improve its mechanism that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship, learn from the experiences of other cities including Shenzhen, and streamline government functions to better support innovation through more favorable policies, he said.

Sheng said he was impressed by the innovative atmosphere in Nantong and hopes the city will release more policies to boost innovation and improve government services for innovators and startups.

Nantong has been actively boosting its innovation-oriented development and paying attention to the growth of high-tech industries and emerging sectors, Jiang said. The number of the city’s high-tech enterprises and high-tech products rank top among cities in Jiangsu province, he added.

The city also boasts unique advantages in human resources, location, industrial clusters and innovation atmosphere, he said. The launch of Tongchuanghui will further add to the appeal of the city to attract innovators and entrepreneurs, he said.

“Nantong should further stimulate university students’ enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship and encourage leading enterprises to launch more professional research facilities,” Jiang said.

Contact the writers through dingcongrong@chinadaily.com.cn