City partners with Berlin on design

INDUSTRIAL designers and manufacturers in Shenzhen are expected to have easier access to German resources as the city partnered with Berlin on industrial design at the Ninth China (Shenzhen) International Design Festival, which opened at the Bao'an Public Library on Friday and ends tomorrow.

　　Themed "Creating and Sharing the Future," the five-day event features designers from Germany, Sweden, Scotland and China sharing their experiences in the areas of artificial intelligence, robots, 3-D printing and personalized digital fabrication at forums, workshops and exhibitions.

　　Visitors were awed by elegant designs and fine craftsmanship of everyday practical items — such as watches, glasses, lamps, pens, and an array of ceramic and glass ware — on display at the "Handmade in Germany" section.

　　German designer, Matthias Philipp, said that the products, all handcrafted in Germany with very limited production, were made by small family-run companies who are very interested in coming to China.

　　Design is very relevant for all of us and we want to show the German designs, designers and our design tradition. That's why we came to promote our products to the Chinese people, to give them the possibility to learn about our designers' tactics and the process behind," he said.

　　Philipp, who signed the cooperation deal with SIDA as the manager of Direktorenhaus Berlin and visited the city's industrial design fair last month, said that he found a lot of interesting designs by young Chinese designers and thinks the city has very good and innovative ideas.

　　Katrin Buchta, German consul-general in Guangzhou, introduced the strategy of the German Government's policy on "Industrial 4.0" at a forum Friday.

　　“There are a lot of factories in China that don't use robots or high-level computers to organize production, I think in this respect, China can learn from Germany and Germany's strategy of Industry 4.0 — how to introduce automation and digitalization into production process," Buchta said.

　　"But it's not just China learning from Germany — in some areas China is at the top of the world," she said.

　　Eight maker groups gave road shows at the festival, with programs on intelligent hardware, wearable devices, smart electronic products and robots.

　　Shirley Feng, secretary general of SIDA, said that the festival "bridges" local and German designers. "We hope that their designers inspire us to improve our own designs, and that this occasion may create more opportunities for cooperation."

275 Fortune 500 companies invest in SZ

A TOTAL of 275 Fortune 500 companies have so far invested and set up offices in Shenzhen, setting a new record for the city’s work of investment promotion, announced Wang Youming, director of Invest Shenzhen, on Thursday afternoon. 
 

　　Wang made the announcement at the 2016 Shenzhen Major Investment Promotion Projects Signing Ceremony at the Civic Center ahead of the signing of 31 major projects for cooperation between the Shenzhen Municipal Government and companies from all around the globe in multiple areas including high-tech, Internet, finance, life health and so forth. 

　　The director concluded that 2016 was a fruitful year for Shenzhen in terms of trades and investment. 

　　“This year, many Fortune 500 companies have settled their branches in Shenzhen. For example, the operating center of Apple Inc. in southern China, the Shenzhen innovation center of Qualcomm and the Internet laboratory of Microsoft entered the city this year,” said Wang. 

　　Besides the signing of the 31 major projects, an array of awards were given to outstanding investment projects, industrial parks and institutions at Thursday's signing ceremony. 

　　Ten cooperative projects initiated by both domestic and overseas companies received awards for settling and investing in Shenzhen as the 2016 Shenzhen Annual Excellent Projects for Investment Promotion. 

　　These award-winning projects included the Intel (U.S.) China Smart Device Innovation Fund project, the ABB (Switzerland) New Energy and Power Protection Operations R&D and Manufacturing projects, the Qualcomm (U.S.) Shenzhen Innovation Center project, the Microsoft (U.S.) IoT Laboratory project and so on. 

　　Another 10 institutions including the Industry 4.0 Alliance, Hungary Innovation and Technology Center and France SALVEO Group were awarded as excellent institutions for global investment promotion. 

　　According to Wang, the city initiated a "NEST Strategy" to attract investment from all around the world at the beginning of this year and the outcome seemed to satisfy everyone. 

　　The bureau has higher aims for next year. "Looking forward to 2017, we will promote many cutting-edge industries and advanced business models, such as next-generation communication networks, artificial intelligence, new-energy automobiles and precision medicine, so we welcome all of these companies to Shenzhen," said Wang.

SZ ranks 3rd on creative index

　　SHENZHEN was ranked third on China's Cities Creative Index (CCCI) during the 2016 Shenzhen Management Innovation Dialogue Forum on Saturday, the Daily Sunshine reported.

　　CCCI is the first intercity index in China evaluating the competitiveness of the cultural industry, and this year is the fifth that the index has been released. 

　　The top 10 cities on the 2016 ranking are as follows: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, Qingdao and Wuhan. 

　　One of the main researchers for the CCCI, Zhou Zhimin of Shenzhen University, said the evaluating model of CCCI incorporates four sections, examining the extent of factor-driving, demand-pull, developmental support and industrial impact of different cities. 

　　In order to expand the research coverage, 50 large- and medium-sized cities in China were included in the study. As a result, Zhou said that the conclusion will facilitate the comparison between China's cities from various perspectives, thus enhancing the improvement of policies in order to boost the competitiveness of cultural industries in those cities. 

　　Zhou also pointed out the unbalanced regional development of the cultural industry that was revealed by the research. Seven out of the 10 top-ranking cities are located in eastern and southern China, while Wuhan, a Central China city, made it onto the top list for the first time this year. 

　　CCCI's ranking is closely connected with cities' level of economic development, showing the development of the cultural industry remarkably boosts the economy of the city. 

　　Some other statistics indicate that Shenzhen has both strengths and weaknesses in the development of its cultural industry. It outnumbers other cities in China on the per capita possession of public books and the number of received tourists. 

However, with the ninth-highest disposable income per capita in China, Shenzhen only ranks 46th in the proportion of cultural consumption to overall consumption. 

Pioneering zone inaugurated

　　FINTECH Pioneering Zone in Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Fund Town and Shenzhen FinTech Building were inaugurated during the opening ceremony of the 2016 China Shenzhen FinTech Summit, which was held at the Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District yesterday.

　　High-quality offices and facilities will be offered to FinTech companies in the FinTech Pioneering Zone, while Shenzhen FinTech Building, located in the Shenzhen High-tech Industrial Park in Nanshan District, will set up the city's first incubator for FinTech startups, according to the summit's organizers.

　　The summit, attended by over 300 guests consisting of academics, government officials and professionals from the financial sector, was hosted by the city government and co-organized by the Shenzhen Financial Industry Development and Service Office and the Qianhai Authority.

　　“New technologies are not only beefing up the traditional financial industry, but also expediting the emergence of new business forms in the financial sector," said Ai Xuefeng, Shenzhen's vice mayor, in a speech at the summit's opening ceremony.

　　Wu Xiaoqiu, vice president of Renmin University of China, said China is outpacing many other countries in the world regarding the application of financial technologies, and China's fast-growing Internet finance is changing the country's financial industry in many aspects.

　　"The technology era of the financial industry has arrived, which will diversify the financial industry in China," Wu said, adding that people should be aware of technology's positive impact on the financial industry and also be wary of the risks of Internet finance due to its lack of transparency.

　　Yao Yudong, chief economist of Dacheng Fund Management Co. Ltd., read out the initiative for establishing China Shenzhen FinTech Digital Currency League and China Shenzhen FinTech Research Institute during the opening ceremony.

He said that the league and the institute, aimed at promoting the innovation and combination of finance and technology, will both be located in Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone.

Qianhai aims to take the lead with innovative measures

　A TOTAL of 109 innovative measures practiced in Qianhai-Shekou pilot free trade zone (Qianhai-Shekou FTZ) last year were released Thursday at its first press briefing of 2017, showcasing the soon-to-be southern financial hub’s healthy momentum and potential for providing more well-tested measures to the rest of the country.
 

　　The FTZ authority said the area generated 24 innovative measures last year to support easier investment, 31 measures to facilitate trade, 26 practices regarding financial innovation, four new modes of Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation, 10 supervision practices to ensure the government, enterprises and finance, e-commerce, trade and information factors are all on the right track, and 11 trials to improve the legal environment.

　　Among those practices, the authority said that by integrating and simplifying the administrative services for international trade, arranging trade, logistics, information and capital into one channel, carrying out cross-border yuan transactions, utilizing the Internet for online tax services, arbitration and other legal matters, and following the negative list system, the FTZ will create a sound business environment for enterprises.

　　According to Fu Zhengping, deputy director of the Institute of Free Trade Zone of Sun Yat-sen University, the institution gave the highest score to the FTZ for its institutional innovation for investment and the transformation of government functions.

　　Tian Fu, director of Qianhai-Shekou FTZ Authority, said that nine of the innovative measures in the FTZ made it on the list of the national innovative practices, which was released in November. He also said that those measures have successfully saved time and money for Qianhai enterprises, and helped them reduce or remit tax totalling 660 million yuan (US$96 million) in 2016.

　　"To continue pioneering innovation, we will build a policy-making platform to connect State departments and local departments, an innovative platform for enterprises, a platform for Shenzhen and Hong Kong's cooperative innovation and a think tank in 2017," Tian said.

　　He also revealed that Qianhai will build a two-way channel for free trade, commodity circulation, investment and innovation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

　　Zeng Yijing, director of the Shenzhen office of Hong Kong Trade Development Council, has been saying over the past few years that Hong Kong joined hands with Qianhai to promote bilateral cooperation, and innovative measures will continue to be made.

　　"In the future I hope to see more interaction between the two cities. Besides attracting more Hong Kong companies, I would love to see more leading companies in Qianhai set up R&D centers in Hong Kong to create a better talent circulation," Zeng added.

　　Since the establishment of the FTZ, 208 innovative measures have been made, 67 of which were firsts in China and 37 have been adopted by other places in Guangdong.

SZ 1st French Tech Hub

SHENZHEN was officially inaugurated as a French Tech Hub yesterday, the first city in China to be announced by the French Government as a French Tech Hub. 
 

　　Shenzhen and nine other cities around the world were officially declared as French Tech Hubs on Thursday by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. 

　　Matthias Fekl, French Secretary of State in charge of Foreign Trade, Tourism and Overseas French, attended a meeting with the French tech community in Shenzhen at HAX, a hardware accelerator in Huaqiangbei, to officially inaugurate Shenzhen as a French Tech Hub. 

　　"The cooperation between France and China in terms of digital and emerging technologies has huge potential," said Fekl. He said the world's biggest startup incubator will be established in Paris next year, which will have the capacity to cater to 1,000 startups. 

　　According to Fekl, the French Government has also launched a program called French Tech Ticket to help foreign startups get placed in 41 French startup incubators for free. 

He said 2,700 companies including 45 Chinese startups have applied to join the program this year, which is double the number from last year

SZ sets up trade, Investment and Innovation center in michigan

A DELEGATION led by the governor of the U.S. State of Michigan, Rick Snyder, and the mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, visited the 18th China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF), which opened yesterday, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding for economic partnership with Shenzhen's Party chief Ma Xingrui and Mayor Xu Qin. 
 

　　The signing of the MOU symbolized that Shenzhen and the State of Michigan, especially Detroit, will have closer ties with each other in such fields as technological innovation, trade and autonomous vehicle development. 

　　A Michigan-Shenzhen Innovation Center will soon be set up in Michigan. 

　　"I believe it [Michigan-Shenzhen Innovation Center] is going to be a good gateway. There are innovative, young companies and entrepreneurs working back and forth between Shenzhen and Michigan," said the governor during an interview at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center after the fair was officially opened yesterday morning. 

　　The officials from both countries also witnessed two other deals signed yesterday. One of the deals was a project to cultivate innovative talents from the Beijing Institute of Collaborative Innovation, Southern University of Science and Technology, and University of Michigan. 

　　Another project was an agreement that a Shenzhen-based foundation of advanced high-tech industries will invest US$27 million to support the University of Michigan's R&D in intellectual vehicles. 

　　In return, researchers from the University of Michigan will provide suggestions and plans, including the recently launched project called Planet M, for Shenzhen's autonomous vehicle industry, and help to test the vehicles made by Shenzhen automakers. 

　　Talking about the ties between Shenzhen and Detroit, Duggan said that there is a convergence going on between the two cities, particularly in intelligent, autonomous, and connected vehicles. 

　　"A hundred years ago, Detroit was the center of innovation and we are very excited to be now establishing ourselves as the center of the next generation for manufacturing. So we want to take latest research technology and be the place of pioneers," said Duggan. 

　　Snyder, who has visited China six times since beginning his tenure as Michigan governor, said that Detroit can learn a lot from Shenzhen. 

　　"Detroit is now one of the top five cities in America that attracts the millennial. Young people are coming to Detroit in an amazing number. We are building 5,000 housing units right now and the mayor in Shenzhen told us they are going to build 400,000. In Detroit, we are building for the first time in 50 years, so there's much that we can learn from Shenzhen," said the Governor. 

　　At the State of Michigan's exhibition booth, eleven companies from the State were prepared to introduce and explain their projects, which were mainly advanced technology and intelligent vehicles, to local visitors and other exhibitors from all around the world.