On September 27th, 2019 Xiamen Star Entrepreneur Challenge was successfully held in M By Montcalm London Shoreditch Tech City. The challenge was co-hosted by the Management committee of Xiamen National Torch Hi-tech Zone Management Committee; Organizational Department of Xiamen Municipal Committee, Xiamen Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Xiamen Science and Technology Bureau, Entrepreneurship Center, Xiamen Soft Investment Information Technology Co., Ltd and CENTI Group(China-Europe Science and Technology Innovation Network).
Delegation from Xiamen participated in this challenge in london, which includes Mr. Yunwei Yan, Deputy Minister of Organization Department of Xiamen Municipal Committee; Mr. Weidong Lin, Chief Economic Manager of Management committee of Xiamen National Torch Hi-tech Zone Management Committee; Ms. Jiaorong Jiang, Deputy Director of Xiamen Human Resources and Social Security Bureau; Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Director of Xiamen Science and Technology Bureau; Mr. Yonghong Huang, Chairman of Entrepreneurship Center; Mr. Jianbin Chen, General Manager of Xiamen Soft Investment Information Technology Co., Ltd.
2019 Xiamen Star Entrepreneur Challenge focuses on integrating various innovation and entrepreneurship resources such as policy, capital, industry, market and talents, providing opportunities for high-end overseas entrepreneurship projects with core technologies, industrialization prospects and strong market competitiveness, and facilitating their development and expansion in Xiamen.
Since May this year, 14 outstanding projects have been selected for the final competition in three groups: Biomedicine and Medical Devices, Artificial Intelligence and Smart Manufacturing, and New-generation Information Technology Group. Each group invites 7 British experts to judge the project comprehensively, including 3 technical experts, 3 economic experts and 1 management expert.
The past two China (Xiamen) Overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competitionin Silicon Valley, US, achieved fruitful results. This year is the first time to be held in London, UK, and send " invitation" again to overseas high-end scientific and technological talents, further expanding the popularity and influence of overseas talent introduction, vigorously attracting high-level talents to return to China for entrepreneurship development, and continuously enhancing the competitiveness of urban talents.
Expert judges are grading the project.
The expert judges make a comprehensive evaluation on the presentations of the three groups of projects according to their comprehensive ability, team ability, business model and technology, market prospect and other aspects.
After heated discussion and strict evaluation, the top 6 of the 2019 Xiamen Entrepreneur Star Challenge come out.
After the roadshow, the main concern of the event opens in the main venue.
First of all, Ms. Ruotong Zhao, the partner and deputy head of UK in CENTI GROUP, welcome all the leaders and guests, and express that it was honored for CENTI to host the challenge. The aims of the challenge was not only selecting for Xiamen's industrial development, but also helping European companies explore opportunities and financing in the Chinese market. Over the past five years, by maintaining a close working partnership with Chinese and European investors, entrepreneurs, governments and technology pioneers, making full use of the resources and tapping potentials, CENTI is committed to building a solid, diversified and trustworthy platform.
Ms. Zhao stressed that the "China-Europe technology innovation challenge series" is a new series of projects launched by CENTI, which aims to help local governments in China to find high-quality and industry-matching early stage European technology projects. All the competitions in the series are jointly organized by the CENTI and various cities in China, receiving the active support and attention of local governments, so the winner of the competition can obtain a series of high-quality resources rapidly and directly, such as government guiding funds and prizes, support and investment from local venture capital organizations, exposure in the Chinese market, and cooperation with local strategic partners. Since its launch in May, the two major events under the challenge series have attracted the attention of more than 1,400 outstanding European sciences and technology projects.
Later, Mr Weidong Lin, Chief Economic Manager of Management committee of Xiamen National Torch Hi-tech Zone Management Committee, reviewed last two challenges held in silicon valley in 2017 and 2018, which attracted the attention of nearly 100 overseas high-end talents. After the preliminary competition and the final competition, 11 talent projects were officially selected into the "Double Hundred Plan" of Xiamen each year. Most of the selected projects have come to Xiamen for investigation and settled in the torch high-tech zone.
As the bridgehead and main position of Xiamen talent innovation and entrepreneurship, torch high-tech zone is centering on the goal of becoming the main force of high-quality innovation and entrepreneurship city and taking the construction of national independent innovation demonstration zone as an opportunity to improve the service system about innovation and entrepreneurship policies, create a world-leading business environment, and attract overseas high-quality talents to realize the dream of innovation and entrepreneurship.
During the competition, well-known investment institutions from China and Europe gathers at the site to discover and select excellent international entrepreneurship project teams, sharing international resources and exchanging advantages and experience. In short, this competition expanded the international cooperation. At the same time, by paying close attention to both domestic and overseas entrepreneurial talents, Xiamen introduces international advanced forces.
Next, CENTI will strengthen the connection with Xiamen's international strategic cooperation and build a more powerful bridge between the latest international scientific and technological innovation projects and China's market and capital, creating a more balanced and diversified multinational enterprise ecosystem.