An entrepreneur promotes his project at a road show held by the Xiamen Torch Development­ Zone for High Technology Industries. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Six winners were chosen out of 18 projects at the finals of the 2022 China Xiamen Overseas Entrepreneurship Competition, which concluded at the University of Cambridge in mid-December. 

According to organizers, the winners incorporate the industries of information technology, artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing and biomedicine. The project of a real-time map reconstruction and intelligent analysis platform of aerial images was granted first prize. 

Co-organized by the Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries; the office of Xiamen high-level talent introduction; the Xiamen high-tech entrepreneurship center; and relevant parties, the competition aimed to attract talent and projects that would support the industrial development of Xiamen.

The competition started in August and attracted a total of 72 projects. The projects were evaluated by a jury of professors from the University of Cambridge and University of Surrey, as well as executives from local venture capital institutions and high-tech businesses. 

The 18 projects that qualified for the finals will be considered candidates for Xiamen's talent development program and included in the torch zone's potential talent projects, according to the organizers. 

"We hope to discover good projects through holding the competition and also enable overseas talents to know more about Xiamen's potential in innovation and entrepreneurship," the organizers said. 

During the awards ceremony, officials and representatives from the Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries promoted Xiamen and the zone's environment and favorable policies online, inviting more technological talents from the United Kingdom to start businesses in Xiamen. 

The competitiveness of talent determines a city's future development, Lai Jianzhou, director of the administrative committee of the torch zone, told at the awards ceremony. 

Talent is the prime resource and lifeblood of economic and industrial development, Lai said. 

The torch zone will strengthen policy support and services for project implementation and provide talents with more opportunities to develop in Xiamen, he added. 

Launched in 2017, the competition has evolved as Xiamen gives priority to its international development.

Keeping pace with the city's construction progress, the competition has designed its content in line with the needs of Xiamen's industries in an effort to attract overseas talents and promote project matchmaking. 

In 2017, the torch zone joined hands with the Xiamen high-level talent introduction office to launch the competition, holding it in Silicon Valley in the United States.

Since then, the organizers have held the contest in the United Kingdom in 2019; and Singapore and Russia in 2021.

"After six years of development, the competition has expanded its footprint from Silicon Valley to North America, the UK, Singapore and Russia. It has attracted more participants of overseas talents and startups and become a brand of Xiamen to attract overseas talents," an official of Xiamen high-tech entrepreneurship center said. 

According to organizers, the competition has attracted more than 700 talent projects since 2017, with 35 of them included in Xiamen's talent development program. 

For example, Yunmao, a high-tech company founded by overseas returnees from the United States, settled in Xiamen Software Park's phase 3 of the torch zone. Yunmao has a market value estimated at 400 million yuan ($57.3 million) and complements Xiamen's semiconductor and integrated circuit industry.

Utilizing the BRICS Partnership New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, the torch zone launched a contest venue at the overseas competition for talents from BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which has attracted 104 projects. 

In recent years, the torch zone has built platforms to encourage more entrepreneurship. It has rolled out a series of supportive policies and constructed facilities, such as an entrepreneurship park for overseas students, a center for supporting high-tech businesses from Taiwan, and a maker space for cross-Straits startups. 

To date, the zone has welcomed more than 600 startup businesses run by overseas students, 75 by entrepreneurs from Taiwan, and has attracted more than 1,300 young entrepreneurs from Taiwan. 

On top of this, the zone boasts nearly 20 key platforms for research and development including the Cross-Straits Tsinghua Research Institute, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Xiamen Industrial Technology Research Institute, which collectively introduced more than 100 R&D talents and dozens of teams of technical experts. 

To enhance people's sense of belonging, the zone has optimized its work, livelihood and education services for talents. It has served overseas talents more than 3,000 times and offered services to more than 500 businesses operated by overseas entrepreneurs. Its human resources industrial park has introduced nearly 40 advisory agencies including Uniex Human Resources, which help provide businesses and talents with professional and diversified HR services. 

This year, based on the overseas entrepreneurship competition, the zone has started to recruit technological talents and has offered more than 100 well-paid jobs so far. 

Officials from the Torch Zone talk online with competitors­ of the 2022 China Xiamen Overseas. [Photo provided to China Daily]