Coupons offered to startups

06-05, 2020

A total of 125 enterprises received innovation coupons totaling 94.25 million yuan (US$13.27 million) in the latest release. The coupons can be redeemed for several tech-related service fees, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported. The coupons were released by the Shenzhen Municipal Science, Technology and Innovation Commission to reduce costs of innovation for startups. When small and medium-sized firms and startups buy technological services such as research and development service and technology transfer service, they can use these coupons to redeem the fees. At the end of April, innovation coupons worth 15,000 to 200,000 yuan were issued by the city to 5,086 different businesses including Huawei, Centre Testing International and Shenzhen University. In another development, the city planned to provide funds totaling 2.77 billion yuan to 10,236 Shenzhen-based companies to help enhance their innovation capabilities, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily. At present, the list of companies that have successfully received portions of the fund is being published to seek opinions. Firms including BYD, Tencent, ZTE, Skyworth, and Hytera were on the list, according to the report.

Science, technology workers help boost economic growth

06-02, 2020

The number of professionals and technicians, the backbone of those working in the science and technology sector in Shenzhen, had reached 1.83 million by the end of 2019, statistics from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Association said Saturday, the National Science and Technology Workers' Day.For every 10 permanent residents in Shenzhen, there are 1.5 professionals and technicians. In 40 years, the number of science and technology workers in the city has increased by 900,000 times compared with 40 years ago at which time there were only two professionals, one was a technician in tractor repair and maintenance, and the other was a veterinarian.In 40 years, the city's GDP also increased by 10,000 folds, evidencing the statement that "science and technology constitute a primary productive force."The science and technology workers underpin the development of Shenzhen as a city of innovation. In 2019, the number of invention patents in Shenzhen was 106.3 for every 10,000 people, eight times the national average.The number of ICT applications reached 17,459, taking up one-third of the total number of applications for the entire country, and taking the lead among major Chinese cities for 16 straight years.The major force of science and technology workers comes from enterprises and the high-tech industry. In 2019, the production value of Shenzhen's high-tech enterprises exceeded 2.6 trillion yuan (US$364 billion) and 2,700 State-level high-tech enterprises were added, bringing the total number of enterprises to 17,000, second only to Beijing.By the end of 2019, Shenzhen had 2,258 innovation incubators, attracting talented staff from around the country and the world.In a letter to mark the National Science and Technology Workers' Day, the Shenzhen CPC committee and city government said the city will further create an atmosphere for respecting talented individuals and knowledge, and create favorable conditions for growth, innovation and entrepreneurship of science and technology workers.

Internet of Vehicles

05-29, 2020

Shenzhen has released a slew of measures to further support the Internet of Vehicles industry by funding research and development (R&D), encouraging platform construction, improving infrastructure and optimizing supporting facilities. Innovators who carry out city-level scenario simulation, industrial public services, key technology research and R&D of major facilities will be funded up to 5 million yuan (US$698,860), 10 million yuan, 15 million yuan and 200 million yuan, respectively.

300m subsidies for high-tech enterprises

05-28, 2020

A total of 6,326 high-tech firms in Shenzhen will be granted more than 300 million yuan (US$41 million) of incentive funding, the city’s science, technology and innovation commission said in a statement Tuesday. The firms were all identified as high-tech enterprises in 2019. Each company will be offered a subsidy of 50,000 yuan, with the total amount of subsidies reaching 316 million yuan. Companies that will receive the subsidies include Injoinic Technology Co. Ltd., Shenzhen SNROX Electronics Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen Huahi Red Communication Technology Co. Ltd. In another development Shenzhen HTI Group Co. Ltd. and the Shenzhen branch of the Export-Import Bank of China have strengthened cooperation, having jointly obtained 10 billion yuan of coronavirus relief funding from the Export-Import Bank of China, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily. The funds are aimed at supporting Shenzhen’s foreign trade industry, manufacturing industry and related supporting industries affected by the epidemic to resume work and production. Shenzhen HTI Financing Guarantee Co., a subsidiary under Shenzhen HTI Group Co. Ltd., has signed an agreement with the Shenzhen branch of the Export-Import Bank of China, the Daily said. According to the agreement, the bank will provide bank guarantees worth 10 billion yuan for Shenzhen HTI Financing Guarantee Co. The two sides will launch loan guarantees with favorable interest rates for Shenzhen businesses to help them weather financial difficulties caused by the epidemic.

China Development Bank to offer US$50b of financial aid for GBA

05-27, 2020

China Development Bank (CDB) announced Monday that it will provide 360 billion yuan (US$50.5 billion) of financing support to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) this year as authorities called for further efforts to promote the development of the area. The financing includes 290 billion yuan of loans and a total of 110 billion yuan will be spent on technology innovation and strategic emerging industries, according to the announcement. The CDB said it will further strengthen the financial support of the novel coronavirus epidemic containment in the area and guarantee the supply of materials for enterprises. It will also work with the local governments to promote the resumption and consolidation of supply chains in the area and the whole world. Earlier this month, Chinese regulators, including the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, issued a guideline calling for financial support for the development of the Greater Bay Area. The guideline put forward 26 specific measures to promote the Greater Bay Area’s cross-border trade, facilitate investment and financing, expand the opening up of the financial sector, promote the connectivity of financial markets and financial infrastructure, and boost innovation of financial services. According to the plan, residents of Hong Kong and Macao are going to be able to invest in wealth management products sold by Chinese banks in the Greater Bay Area, while those in Guangdong’s cities might include financial products sold by banks in Hong Kong and Macao in their portfolios. Chinese authorities in February 2019 unveiled the outline development plan for the Greater Bay Area, aiming to develop the region into a role model of high-quality development. The country aims to build the area into a financial center as well as an international innovation and technology hub to facilitate talented worker cultivation and exchanges of resources. The GBA consists of Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. Being one of the areas with the strongest economic vitality and most openness, this area plays a crucial role for the national development. By the end of 2017, the area owned a land space of 56,000 square kilometers with 70 million people living there. With less than 1 percent of China’s land space, the area contributed about 12 percent of China’s economy.

SZ's driving role for concerted development

05-26, 2020

Shenzhen should further play its pioneering role in reform, opening up and innovation under the guidance of the national strategy of building a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at an interview with Shenzhen Special Zone Daily on Sunday. The Central Government unveiled the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in February last year, aiming to develop the region into a role model of high-quality development. In the outline, it said a Comprehensive National Science Center will be built in Shenzhen. Xia Cheng, deputy director with the Regional Development Strategic Research Center under NDRC, said Shenzhen should strengthen its innovation advantages in the deep integration of industry, education and research to win status of a Comprehensive National Science Center. Through construction of the science center, Shenzhen should introduce more Central Government-funded laboratories, research equipment and institutions that attract world-leading scientists and improve basic research and innovation capability. Shenzhen’s investment in R&D reached 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) in 2018, making up 4.34 percent of GDP. The percentage doubled the national average. Xia said Shenzhen should strengthen the advantage in science achievement transformation and bring the innovation capability of enterprises into full play. As the development of cities along the banks of the Pearl River Delta area is unbalanced, Xia suggests Shenzhen play a driving role in the construction of the Greater Bay Area. Guangdong recently unveiled mechanisms and policies for integrated development of urban and rural areas, Xia thought the concerted development among cites along the banks of the Pearl River is crucial for improving the quality and economic size of the Greater Bay Area and improving the city’s leading role. “Shenzhen should strengthen cooperation with Zhuhai and Zhongshan through platforms like Hengqin Free Trade Area and Cuiheng New Area to jointly build a demonstration area for concerted development,” Xia noted.

Huawei completes 200k 5G base stations

05-21, 2020

Huawei has completed installation of 200,000 5G base stations in China and the number will exceed 800,000 before the end of the year, covering more than 340 cities. In a keynote speech titled “Simplification and Convergence Empower 5G Business Success” at the Huawei Global Analyst Summit 2020 yesterday, Gan Bin, vice president of Huawei’s Wireless Network Product Line, elaborated on the importance of simplified, converged 5G networks to cater for the trends facing the 5G industry. “Speed tests have reported a 10-fold data rate improvement on 5G networks over 4G networks. Innovative processing and algorithms, as well as advanced hardware materials and heat dissipation technologies, have enabled 5G networks to achieve an energy efficiency 50 times higher than 4G. Ultimately, 5G will be 100 times more energy-efficient than 4G,” Gan said at the summit. “Only converged and simplified networks can deliver full-service business success in the 5G era,” said Gan, adding Huawei is working with its partners to make this a reality. At the summit yesterday, European Telecommunication Standardization Association, China Broadband Development Alliance, Portugal Telecom and Huawei jointly launched F5G ( Fifth-Generation Fixed Network) Global Initiative, and called on the upstream and downstream links of the global fiber optic network industry to join the F5G industrial organization, promote the industrial prosperity and development, and embrace the F5G era. Wang Tao, managing director of Huawei, pointed out that “a fixed network needs a healthy industrial ecology. The establishment of F5G standard and industrial organization marks the beginning of building a complete fixed network industrial ecology. Wei Leping, director of the China Telecom Science and Technology Commission, thought it was necessary for the industry to build a unified specification covering three basic application scenarios, namely, transmission network, access network and resident network, around the new generation of fiber optic network F5G in order to better support the wide deployment of new technologies and applications such as 5G and push the fiber optic network to all possible ubiquitous application scenarios. Luca Pesando, chairman of ETSI ISG F5G, hoped more upstream and downstream industrial organizations can join the F5G industry camp and work together to promote the prosperity of the fiber optic industry. The three-day Huawei Global Analyst Summit 2020 ended yesterday.

Measures in place to improve Bay Area's financial services

05-18, 2020

Seventeen financial measures supporting construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) have been implemented and other measures released by the central bank are under discussion for implementation, the Shenzhen Branch of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said Friday. The central bank and three other State agencies recently issued 45 measures on supporting GBA construction in the financial sector. Among them, 17 measures have been well-implemented. They include the pilot program for facilitation of capital account income and expenses, the pilot program for foreign debt registration reform, the pilot program for cross-border asset transfers and the pilot program for the establishment of yuan-based overseas investment and lending funds. Three other measures have been piloted in the Qianhai-Shekou area. They include the pilot program for the facilitation of high-level trade and investment, the pilot program of yuan use facilitation reform of cross-border capital account income and the pilot program of equity investment of non-investment enterprises. “The PBOC Shenzhen is working on implementation of 11 other measures that include establishing a cross-border fund management mechanism, piloting cross-border capital pool integrating yuan and foreign currencies, promoting cross-border credit cooperation and establishing financial supervision and coordinating mechanisms in the GBA, according to a release by PBOC Shenzhen Branch. The 45 measures issued by the central bank include 23 financial reform and opening up measures from four perspectives such as trade and investment facilitation, cross-border circulation and exchanges of currencies, expanding opening up of the financial industry and deepening financial cooperation between the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao and other measures on prevention of cross-border financial risks.

AI training launched for competitors

05-18, 2020

An artificial intelligence (AI) training camp of the 2020 Shenzhen Open Data Innovation Contest (SODiC) was recently launched, where one of the organizers, Huawei, invited experts to provide online training for competitors, according to Shenzhen Municipal Government Services Data Bureau. The contest has attracted 788 teams and 3,557 candidates as of Thursday. The training was designed to give competitors a better understanding of the game’s contents so as to improve their performance, said Shenzhen Economic Daily. During the training, Huawei’s senior technologist, Du Qi, demonstrated the use of Huawei’s AI platform called ModelArts, which was designated to be used by candidates in the contest’s algorithm competition. Du said that the platform will cope with the heaviest tasks, namely data preparation and data processing, so that candidates can focus on the development of their own AI applications. Li Zhuo, director of Huawei’s AI solution department, gave a lecture, titled “New trends of AI under the era of 5G,” to inspire competitors to come up with innovative ideas. The event will help integrate 5G and AI, two cutting-edge technologies. Shenzhen, home to a variety of leading global information and communications technology solutions providers, will take this contest as an opportunity to continue improving the value of the data resource, create an ecology for data application development, and invigorate data innovation. The contest will also encourage the government, related companies, institutes and organizations to open data sharing and to make full use of data as a new source of economic development, according to the report. According to the organizers, more than 2 million yuan (US$282,000) will be awarded to around 60 winners from 24 award categories. The biggest individual prize will reach 200,000 yuan.