The second International Talent Innovative & Entrepreneurial Competition organized by Shenzhen will be launched in nine cities in eight countries starting March 2018.
The cities are Boston, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Silicon Valley and London.
Those interested in participating can sign up on the official website http://itcsz.cn for the preliminaries organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, which will be held at subvenues of the event in the nine cities between Dec. 1 and Feb. 28. The projects that get past the preliminary rounds, around 100 in total, will gather in Shenzhen in April for the final contest at the Conference on International Exchange of Professionals.
The total prize for the event has been increased to 10.91 million yuan (US$1.63 million) from last year’s 9.12 million yuan.
To encourage innovation and attract more international talents to start up businesses in Shenzhen, the organizer has set up awards in four categories, namely the finals at the subvenues, finals at the professional contest, finals in the industry and finals at the main venue in Shenzhen. Each individual contestant has a chance to win the 1.4-million-yuan top prize.
The industry contest covers sectors such as the Internet, advanced manufacturing, electronic technology, biology and life science, as well as new materials and energy. For this year’s event, the organizer has added the professional contest, which covers IoT, artificial intelligence and anti-cancer technologies.
Thirty-four venture capital institutions have set up a 20.9-billion-yuan pool to finance outstanding projects in the contest.
Last year’s competition attracted 99 projects for the finals in the city, out of which 11 projects settled in Shenzhen and 65 projects received intentions of cooperation with industrial parks in the city.
