SZ to back high-tech projects for research

05-18, 2020

In a bid to push scientific and technological breakthroughs, Shenzhen is soliciting high-tech projects from innovators in the fields of electronic information, materials and energy, biotechnology and intelligent equipment, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday. According to the city’s science, technology and innovation commission, the projects will be selected in accordance with the development needs of Shenzhen and receive funding from the government for further research. High-tech enterprises at the State or municipal level as well as advanced technology service businesses registered in Shenzhen can log onto https://sticapply.sz.gov.cn for an online application. The application deadline is June 10. The field of electronic information covers artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, cloud computing, integrated circuitry, new-type display, information security, quantum information, third-generation semiconductors, aviation communication, software, intelligent transportation and Internet of Things. The field of materials and energy includes electronic information materials, biomedical materials, new energy materials, structural and functional materials, low-dimensional nanomaterials, hydrogen energy and nuclear energy, energy saving, new energy vehicles and offshore wind power. Biotechnology encompasses medical biotechnology, medical devices, population health technology, water pollution treatment and ecological restoration, air pollution and ozone pollution control, and plant breeding. Intelligent equipment covers robotics and intelligent equipment, intelligent unmanned systems, additive manufacturing and laser manufacturing, aerospace and marine equipment, and high-performance and intelligent instruments.

Private investment encouraged for GBA construction

05-14, 2020

Shenzhen is calling for private investors to participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and building the city into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Forty-five measures were unveiled in a notice recently issued by the leading group for the construction of the GBA to facilitate interested private investors, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. According to the notice, the nongovernmental sector is encouraged to engage in scientific innovation. Hong Kong universities and research institutes are encouraged to set up more institutes and innovation centers in Shenzhen to industrialize their scientific achievements. Banks, insurance companies and large enterprises are encouraged to participate in the construction of infrastructure like ports, rails and roads. Newly emerging industries of strategic importance and financial innovation are also open to private investment. The city will support NGOs to deepen cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries in professional service, education, culture, sports and tourism. Hong Kong and Macao youths are welcome to create startups or land jobs in Shenzhen. Private investors are encouraged to be involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and expand trade cooperation with Belt and Road countries. Telecommunication operators and Internet companies are encouraged to enhance construction of information technology infrastructure. Private investment is also encouraged for the construction of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Cooperation Zone, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Zone, science facilities at Guangming Science Town and Xili Lake International Science and Education City, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Port Economic Belt, and Shatoujiao International Tourism and Consumer Zone. A newly developing world-class urban agglomeration, the GBA brings together Hong Kong and Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province. Covering 56,000 square kilometers (about three times the size of the San Francisco Bay Area), the GBA has a combined population of over 69 million people and GDP of around US$1.5 trillion. Under a guideline to support Shenzhen to build a pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics, by 2025 Shenzhen will rank among the top cities in the world in economic strength and quality of development, with intensive research and development investment and world-class industrial innovation capacity. By midcentury, Shenzhen will become a global benchmark city in its competitiveness, innovation and outstanding influence.

Transport hub to rise in Universiade New Town area

05-07, 2020

A transport hub integrating three Metro lines and an intercity railway will rise in the Universiade New Town area in Longgang District to enhance the connectivity of the eastern area of Shenzhen with Futian CBD and Shenzhen International Airport in Bao’an in the west, as well as Daya Bay in the city of Huizhou. According to an environment report released by Shenzhen Metro Group published by Shenzhen Special Zone Daily yesterday, three Metro lines — Lines 3, 14 and 16 — and intercity rail Line 33, an 86-kilometer rail running between the Shenzhen airport and Daya Bay, will meet at the newly planned Universiade Transport Hub. Work on the 4.68-billion-yuan (US$669 million) hub in western Longgang, which occupies a total floor space of 68,000 square meters, is scheduled to start in June and be completed for trial use by the end of December 2022. The three Metro lines and intercity rail cover the eastern and northern development area of Longgang and link the rest of the city, including Futian CBD, Buji, Henggang, Longgang Subdistrict and Pingshan District. Metro Line 3 has already been put into use while work on Lines 14 and 16 has started. The two new lines will be operational in 2022. The planned 151-kilometer Line 33 will start from Zhongshan Station in the city of Zhongshan and end in the city of Huizhou, going through Shenzhen. The Shenzhen section will start from Terminal 4 of the Shenzhen airport and end at Kengzi Station in Pingshan District. The Shenzhen-Daya Bay intercity rail is one of the five intercity rails that Shenzhen has planned to start construction within the year. The five intercity lines include the Shenzhen-Shenshan High-speed Rail, Shenzhen-Huizhou Intercity Rail, Shenzhen-Daya Bay Intercity Rail, the Longgang-Dapeng spur line and the Qianhai-Huanggang Checkpoint section of the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Rail. The total length of the rail lines reaches 410 kilometers and the total cost is estimated to stand at 201.8 billion yuan. Besides the intercity rails, Shenzhen will open seven Metro line sections at a total length of 107 kilometers this year. The Universiade New Town has a natural geographical advantage due to its location in the west-central part of Longgang District. Boasting a land area of 16 square kilometers and neighboring the city of Dongguan to the west, the new town area is set to be developed into a new urban area and the core of eastern Shenzhen.

SZ ranks No. 1 in patent applications

04-23, 2020

Shenzhen ranked No. 1 in patent applications, patents granted, patents of inventions and international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in the year 2019, according to a white paper on the development of intellectual property in 2019 released by the city’s market supervision authority Tuesday. Simultaneously, the market supervision authority launched a weeklong event highlighting protection of intellectual property rights to mark the 20th World Intellectual Property Day that falls on Sunday. Shenzhen’s patent applications in China in 2019 reached 261,502, an increase of 14.4 percent over the number in 2018. Among them, the applications for patents of inventions increased by 18.4 percent to 82,852 and patents granted increased by 18.8 percent to 166,609. The number of applications for patents of inventions increased by 22.3 percent to 26,051. Huawei and Tencent ranked No. 1 and No. 5 in China with 4,510 and 2,146 patents granted. The number of patents for inventions had reached 138,534 by the end of 2019, an increase of 16.5 percent over the number reached at the end of 2018. For every 10,000 residents, there were 106.3 invention patents, eight times the national average, according to the city’s market supervision authority. The invention patent ownership for every 10,000 residents in Nanshan District was 396.9 on average, ranking it first in China. The city’s international PCT applications in 2019 stood at 17,459, taking first place among major Chinese cities for 16 straight years and taking up 30.6 percent of applications from China and 70.6 percent from Guangdong Province. The number of PCT applications by Huawei Technologies in 2019 reached 4,637, ranking it first among enterprises in the world. The trademark applications and registrations in Shenzhen also continued to increase in 2019, both ranking second among major Chinese cities, the authority said.

Enterprises to get subsidies for technical worker training

12-27, 2019

Shenzhen has introduced measures to implement a new enterprise apprenticeship system starting Dec. 20, according to the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Nanfang Daily reported. Under the new apprenticeship system, enterprises and technical colleges, vocational colleges and other educational and training institutions will jointly cultivate skilled talents through a work-study alternation program. The system aims to cultivate mid-level and senior technical workers who meet the needs of enterprises, as well as technicians who meet the urgent needs of the key industries in various districts and Dapeng New Area. The training period of mid-level and senior technical workers is one to two years, and that of technicians is one to three years. The human resources departments of all the districts and the new area can determine and publish their own annual training plan and the number of apprentices needed. Each enterprise shall apply for no more than 50 percent of the total number of new apprentices in the district or new area each year. According to the regulations, during the period of study and training, enterprises shall pay wages to trainees in accordance with the labor contract law. The wages shall not be lower than the minimum wage standard of the city. Meanwhile, enterprises should also provide the tutors with subsidies. The subsidies for apprentice training are classified into three categories, namely 5,500 yuan (US$785.82), 7,000 yuan and 8,500 yuan per person per year, which are based on vocational skill level. According to the number of apprentices passing the completion assessment and their vocational skill levels, enterprises can apply for apprentice training subsidies from the district’s human resources department. Enterprises can apply in advance for 20 percent of the subsidies within one month of the date when the district’s human resources department approves the registration of the apprentice training. The measures are valid for five years.

City rolls out high-tech incentives

12-20, 2019

Shenzhen's top economic planning agency unveiled the city’s industrial strategy and financial incentives for high-tech investment at the 2019 Shenzhen Global Investment Promotion Conference on Wednesday. Shenzhen will set aside 7 billion yuan (US$1 billion) each year to award innovative talents and fund affordable housing projects for talented people, Nie Xinping, director of the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said at the conference. High-tech enterprises will also be eligible for 20 billion yuan in industrial development incentives each year. Generous incentives will be given to projects involving the integrated circuit (IC), biomedicine, 5G telecom and 8K ultra-high definition industries. The city government will provide fiscal support for IC development at up to 70 percent of the cost of tape-out, which is the final result of the design process for ICs or printed circuit boards before they are sent for manufacturing. A maximum of 30 million yuan will be handed out to any enterprise developing electronic design automation (EDA), which is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as ICs and printed circuit boards. The same ceiling of financial support will also be available for biomedicine or medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment manufacturers, Nie told the conference. A maximum of 100 million yuan in financial incentives a year is up for grabs for pharmaceutical companies who develop a new Category I drug. The city is building five biomedicine and innovative medicine industrial parks in Pingshan, Futian, Guangming, Longgang and Dapeng. Nie also promised support for the construction of 5G infrastructure and the development of core 5G technologies and applications. Telecom companies will receive a 10,000-yuan reward for each standalone 5G base station. A maximum of 150 million yuan in rewards are available for each telecom operator’s 5G development. The city aims to build 45,000 5G base stations by the end of August 2020 and become the first city in China to have citywide 5G coverage. Hefty incentives are also being dished out for the development of 8K ultra-high definition technologies and applications. A maximum of 10 million yuan is available for an 8K public service platform, while 15 million yuan will be given to any 8K industrial project. A higher incentive of up to 20 million yuan will be provided to research projects involving both national and local institutions. Nie also disclosed that the city will provide special support in a bid to form three major industrial clusters, namely new-type displays, artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing. As part of its efforts to accelerate its innovation-led development strategy, Shenzhen is striving to build national science centers, Nie said. The planned Guangming Science Town and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science Innovation Cooperation Zone will be home to national laboratories and basic research institutes. The business environment will be further improved to increase efficiency, lower cost and optimize services, Nie added.

Huawei wins deal to build German 5G network

12-16, 2019

　　Huawei Technologies Co. has won a bid from one of Germany’s biggest telecom companies to help build the country’s fifth-generation (5G) network. 　　Telefonica Deutschland, Telefonica SA’s German unit that operates Germany’s second-largest wireless network, picked Huawei and Finland’s Nokia Oyj to take an equal role supplying its 5G mobile phone network upgrade, the firm said Dec. 11. The deal is subject to the firms getting certified by German authorities, it said. 　　The announcement is a boon to Huawei after Deutsche Telekom AG said last week it has stopped ordering new 5G equipment because of political uncertainty over Chinese suppliers. 　　The German Government is currently drawing up security guidelines for the country’s 5G network expansion, in a move that’s expected to require certification of equipment. 　　Hawks in the intelligence community in Germany would like to tighten the rules in a way that would block Huawei. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in the past she doesn’t want to bar the Chinese firm as long as it abides by certain security standards. It isn’t yet clear what requirements will ultimately be put in place, so it may be too early for Huawei to declare victory in Germany. 　　“We hope that this window of uncertainty will be as short as possible — we don’t yet have certification for any of our vendors,” Telefonica Deutschland CEO Markus Haas said. 　　Telefonica Deutschland is one of few European operators to have named Huawei as a 5G vendor, following first-mover Sunrise of Switzerland, whose Huawei-built 5G network went live earlier this year. 　　Germany’s other two mobile operators — Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone — are existing customers of Huawei but have yet to publicly confirm whether they will stick with Huawei networks leader for 5G.

Huawei aims to help build largest AI platform

12-02, 2019

Huawei aims to help build the world’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform by working with a major national laboratory, offering its self-developed chipsets as fundamental architecture to compete with Intel and NVIDIA. The Pengcheng laboratory, a government-owned lab in Shenzhen, released a new AI computing platform Friday called Cloud Brain II with the help of the Chinese tech giant’s recently launched Atlas 900, the world’s fastest AI training cluster. Huawei launched Atlas 900 in September to help make AI more readily available for scientific research and business innovation in various fields. The cluster is powered by the company’s self-developed chipsets Kunpeng and Ascend processors, competing with Intel’s dominant X86 architecture. “We hope to offer the world a new choice,” Hou Jinlong, president of Huawei’s Cloud and AI Products and Services, said at the launch ceremony Friday. The chipset, Kunpeng 920, which the Cloud Brain AI uses for computing, is expected to be faster than the X86 and have 30 percent lower energy consumption. Our generation has grown up using Intel and NVIDIA technologies, Hou said, expressing hope that the Chinese company’s self-developed chipsets will become the new fundamental architecture for AI computing worldwide. The Pengcheng lab works with hundreds of researchers from Chinese and foreign institutions in advanced scientific domains like quantum computing. It is also part of China’s first batch of innovative open platforms for developing AI technologies to be approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology. China hopes to become a driving force in AI innovation in the coming years, and a batch of individual cities are striving to build tech clusters for technological development by integrating policy support, talents and an innovation platform. Shenzhen is among the top cities that have established the Pengcheng lab to advance research in AI.

Hi-tech firms benefit from tax reduction

11-21, 2019

High-tech companies in Shenzhen have been the group that benefits the most from the city’s preferential tax policies for enterprises, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported. According to statistics, 14,197 State-owned high-tech firms in Shenzhen have enjoyed preferential income tax policies for high-tech enterprises this year, with a total tax reduction of 13.6 billion yuan (US$1.93 billion) and a per capita tax reduction of 959,000 yuan. Meanwhile, 12,041 high-tech enterprises have enjoyed the additional deduction of R&D expenditure, with the amount of additional deductions reaching 99 billion yuan. At present, the high-tech industry has become the biggest pillar industry of Shenzhen’s economy. The total number of national high-tech enterprises in Shenzhen has reached 14,400, ranking second among large and medium-sized cities in China. In the first half of 2019, the output value of the high-tech industry stood at 1.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.26 percent over the same period last year. “The tax and fee cuts policies have accelerated the industrialization of scientific achievements when enterprises are in the stage of trial production,” said Li Peiyuan, product manager of Shenzhen Weigong Biotech Co. Ltd. Li said that although the company has been established for two years, it has become a first-class manufacturer of flow cytometry in China. “With the advent of the 5G era, whoever reacts quickly will have a place in the huge market,” said Wu Qian, financial director of Mobi Antenna Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. The company, specializing in smart 5G products, enjoyed an additional deduction of R&D expenses totaling 8.54 million yuan last year, according to Wu. Shenzhen Creality 3-D Technology Co. Ltd. is also a beneficiary of the tax and fee reduction policies. In 2018, the company gained 11 million yuan from an additional deduction of R&D expenses. “We use the funds on the research and development for our super intelligent 3-D printer,” said Liu Huilin, co-founder of Creality 3-D Technology. The 3-D printer, which can also be used for laser engraving and CNC engraving, is expected to become the company’s next best-selling product. According to Liu, the company’s sales revenue increased from 22.95 million yuan in 2017 to 153 million yuan in 2018.