Join Our Hands and Cast Our Eyes to the Future:Successful completion of the 17th CIEP

From April 14th to 15th, 2019, the 17th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP) was successfully held in Shenzhen. Global elites gathered to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship.

Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, Wang Weizhong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, Zhang Jianguo, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology and Director of SAFEA, Wu Hailong, President of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, Chen Rugui, Deputy Secretary of CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee and Mayor of Shenzhen, Chen Cungen, former Deputy Secretary of the State Organs Work Committee (SOWC) of the CPC and form Chairman of the Trade Union Federation of SOWC, Sun Jiadong, Hero of “Two Bombs and One Satellite”, former Chief Designer of the lunar exploration project, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and representative of the special guest country of the conference the UK, Stefano Buffagni, Deputy Secretary of the Council of Ministers of Italy, and Serge Haroche, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics attended the conference and visited the exhibition.

During the conference, the award ceremony of the 3rd China Shenzhen Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition (IEIC), the launching ceremony of the 2nd “Beidou Star” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and the final of the 3rd Pitch@Palace China were held. The results of “Amazing China - The Most Attractive Chinese Cities by Foreigners” 2018 were released.

The conference has 9 major sections and 26 item content, including the opening ceremony, the Shenzhen Forum, exhibitions and discussions, professional meetings, the guest country and important activities, Shenzhen IEIC, domestic and overseas parallel sessions, selection and awards, and online platforms. More than 4,000 professional organizations, training institutions, universities, technology enterprises and human resources organizations from more than 50 countries and regions to participate. More than 8,500 foreign experts and high-level overseas talents and more than 9,300 representatives from human resources, technology, and education departments and various intelligence-introduction enterprises were invited to attended the convention. 66 meetings and activities were held. According to incomplete statistics, the cooperation intentions for talent and intelligence introduction between provinces and municipalities and professional organizations, training institutions, and overseas students were more than 3,000. By 3:00 p.m. on the 15th, nearly 110,000 people came for visit and discussion on the first two days. During the conference, 73 domestic and foreign media reported on the conference. The number of views of the live broadcasting of the opening ceremony was 687 thousand and that of new media was 1.571 million.

This conference reflects more elements of the innovation-driven development compared with previous conferences. It displays the construction of the international science and technology innovation center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the transfer of scientific and technological achievements, and knowledge-intensive service industries, and invites the internationally renowned entrepreneurial innovation incubation platform Pitch@Palace to launch the final of the 3rd China competition during the opening ceremony of the conference. It has significant breakthroughs and innovation in both form and content.

Summits and Forums

The Shenzhen Forum was held under the theme of “Science and Technology Innovation and International Talent Exchange”. Jim MacDonald and John Spikeman, fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Kevin Ashton, father of the Internet of Things, Witman Hung, Chief Liaison Officer for Hong Kong of Qianhai Administration Bureau, Peter Bonfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Westminster, Chen Xinying, Co-executive of Ping An Group, discussed the two major issues of “scientific and technological innovation and management” and “talent growth and development”, focusing on frontier areas of AI, wearable devices, and biomedicine, and together sought for the way of sustainability and innovation for technology and talents under the new situation. Under the theme of “Innovation Leading, Integrated Development”, the International Forum for Project Management invited domestic and international senior professionals and authoritative experts and scholars in project management to jointly explore the best practice to enhance enterprise project management capabilities and promote enterprise reform and innovation with project management knowledge and tools . The Asia-Pacific Human Resources Service Industry Summit focused on the 40th anniversary of the human resources service industry, highlighted “opportunities” and “development”, and gathered 118 well-known Chinese and foreign human resources organizations such as ManPower, FESCO Adecco, and Shanghai Foreign Service.

Exhibition and Matching

The conference had a total of 2,105 booths with an exhibition area of 70,000 square meters. 29 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions participated in delegations, to promote their policy of talent and intelligence introduction and environment of innovation and entrepreneurship. Among them, Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Guangdong organized large-scale delegations to participate in the exchange. According to statistics, the largest exhibition booth among provinces and cities was the one of Shandong Province, with an exhibition area of 720 square meters. The largest exhibition booth of Shenzhen was the one of Bao’an District, with an exhibition area of 630 square meters. Ping An was the largest enterprise exhibitor with an exhibition area of 468 square meters. At the same time, the conference set up exhibition booths for international technology transfer and innovation cooperation exhibition area and for the matching of overseas talent exchange agencies, where more than 100 overseas institutions effectively matched with the national science and technology system and employers. 200 overseas doctors were invited to participate in the conference and activities such as the Forum for Career Planning of Returned Overseas Chinese and PhD project roadshows were held, bringing together outstanding overseas talent projects. The College-Enterprise Cooperation Conference of IT Industry organized 55 universities and 27 leading enterprises in the field of AI, which reached more than 150 agreements. There were so many excellent moments!

Talent Recruitment

A large number of high-quality jobs were released and a series of special job fairs were held one after another. There were the foreign talent job fair, the job fair for returned overseas talents, the “Elite World” job fair for senior talents, the “Smart Top 100” high-end job fair for famous enterprises, and the “Smart Future” job fair for college graduates. Over 1500 famous enterprises including Tencent, Huawei, Ping An, Vanke, and BYD offered 40,000 jobs to domestic and overseas high-end talents. Exhibitors received over 180 thousand resumes on site. Over 30 thousand people reached an initial employment intention.

International Competitions

Pitch@Palace is a global innovation and entrepreneurship incubator platform launched by Prince Andrew in 2014 and enjoys a high reputation internationally. For the first time, the conference introduced the final of Pitch@Palace China to Shenzhen, selected the top 42 finalists from more than 30,000 innovative and entrepreneurial projects, and arranged for 12 entrepreneurs to do presentations. In the end, Prince Andrew personally announced the vote, and invited the China’s top three projects to go to London, to compete with the winners from other divisions around the world for global top 3. At the same period, there were also the Exhibition Booth for Sino-British International Professional Talent Exchange and Vocational Education and Training and activities such as the Matching Meeting for Sino-British Leading Industrial Innovation Enterprises and Key Strategic Innovation Project. These strengthened international exchanges and cooperation in key areas and core technology projects, proactively deploy and active matched with international innovation resources, and injected more new connotations into the “Golden Age” of the bilateral relation.

The 3rd IEIC is one of the most important innovation and entrepreneurship events in China. It held 10 divisions in 10 cities in 9 countries, including Sydney, Toronto, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Stockholm, Boston, Silicon Valley, and London, and received the application of 1850 projects.  During the conference, 137 projects came to Shenzhen to compete for the prize of RMB 11.2 million. The Qidni–world’s smallest blood purification system for kidney failure project from Canada in the IoT industry won the first prize of RMB 1 million. At present, 75 projects have reached cooperation intentions, and 11 projects have signed cooperation agreements.

Professional Meetings

Relevant bureaus and institutions of the Ministry of Science and Technology organized various special business meetings. At the same time, partners of the conference held a series of forums and summits such as the Global Think Tank Summit, the Human Resources Service Industry Summit, the Global CEO Innovation Summit, and the International Summit on Technology Innovation and Intellectual Property Protection and Trading. All were well received.

Guest Country and Parallel Sessions

The UK was the guest country of this session. In order to thoroughly implement the pragmatic achievements of the “Golden Age” of Sino-British relations, the conference adopted the “Inviting into China and Going Global” form and will hold a series of special events in the UK, inviting a group of original, unique, and leading overseas high-level talents and projects to China for innovation and entrepreneurship. The final of Pitch@Palace China and relevant activities were also held during the conference. In addition, the Ministry of International Trade, the University of Cambridge Appraisal Institute, the University of Westminster and other government departments, educational institutions and the relevant Chinese authorities signed a memorandum of cooperation.

Besides the special session of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the conference set up a special session in Macao Special Administrative Region for the first time and parallel sessions in Bao’an and Longhua Districts of Shenzhen and Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, to discuss talent needs, talent training models, and talents in the new era, to create a new platform for talent projects and technology cooperation.

The conference was committed to promoting global intellectual resources and innovation elements to gather and grow in China by providing professional services and strengthening the accurate matching among production, studying, research, and application. It serves as an important stage for global scientists and entrepreneurs who are interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, especially young entrepreneurs, to display their ability and realize their dreams, which will enhance exchanges and mutual trust, achieve mutual benefit and win-win, and create a better future.