Conference serves needs of overseas startup businesses

The Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference held annually in Beijing's Chaoyang district has become an one-stop service platform for overseas entrepreneurs earning wide recognition, according to district officials.

Launched in 2013 by Chao-yang district, OTEC is committed to offering services to overseas talents and returnees who intend to begin their career in China.

By organizing diverse activities such as contests, forums and job fairs, the conference has not only helped to attract investment and entrepreneurs but enhanced the city's capability for innovation, organizers said.

This year's OTEC started in May and will last through September. It features four major events—the Global Entrepreneurship Competition, the International Startup Meetup, the International Innovation Summit and the Entrepreneurship Tour across China.

The event will facilitate the development of the digital economy and support the capital's endeavor of building"two zones" —the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Opening up the Services Sector, according to the organizers.

As a key part of OTEC, the Global Entrepreneurship Competition focuses on the four fields of new consumption, healthcare, big data,artificial intelligence and the digital economy.

Organizers said that compared with previous years, participants in OTEC 2021 were divided into two groups—startups and growth companies—to involve more businesses and projects with broad prospects.

Organizers have set up five overseas competition zones and partnered with seven other domestic cities such as Zhangjiakou in Hebei province and Changsha in Hunan province to hold the competition preliminaries in China.

The event serves as an opening-up platform strengthening the district's regional cooperation and advancing integrated development, organizers said.

During the overseas competitions, six projects won. Together with 23 domestic teams, they participated in the final held in Beijing on Friday.

The champion of the growth company group will receive a service package worth 1.3 million yuan ($201,000) and that of the startup group will win a service package worth 900,000 yuan, according to the organizers.

Chaoyang district is also providing excellent competitors with a variety of prizes and services such as workplaces, financial aid, leadership coaching and brand promotion.

Beijing Qboson Quantum Technology, a startup dedicated to quantum computing, was  the cham-pion of the data intelligence and new infrastructure segment in last year's competition.

Founded in November 2020 with the help of OTEC, the company has applied for dozens of patents and scored an angel financing round with local government support, said its CEO Wen Kai.

OTEC has partnered with TechNode to organize the OTEC-Emerge Tech Summit in Beijing. The summit was initially scheduled for Aug 15 but has been postponed until September due to the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

At the summit, the first-ever OTEC-Emerge Tech Awards will be presented to promising startups founded in China by international teams. Apart from the awards ceremony, the summit will feature three panels on smart mobility, digital economy, and cross-border investment. Experts, academics and corporate leaders are poised to share their insights and analyses at the event, exploring the future of China's science and technology industries, the organizers said.

Coinciding with the summit, the International Startup Meetup will bring together 50 representatives from multinational corporations and organizations to discuss Chaoyang's tech policies and share their experiences in starting businesses overseas.

Since 2013, OTEC has attracted more than 36,000 entrepreneurs and 7,000 startup projects from 39 countries and regions around the world. Of them, 520 projects have been launched in Beijing.

The annual event is helping Beijing become a globally influential sci-tech innovation center. It also assists Chaoyang district in advancing its innovation-driven development strategy by creating an entrepreneurship service ecosystem and building an international center for startup businesses, its organizers said.