On the 26th of May, the first Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Elite Training Camp in Shenzhen was officially launched by the International Innovation Institute of the Greater Bay Area. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education's 2019 exchange program for teachers and college students in Hong Kong, Macao and mainland. The event was attended by the Secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Commission Party, Deputy Director Qiu Xuan, Shenzhen Municipal Committee Greater Bay District Office, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Office Cao Saixian, Vice Governor of Nanshan District Xiao Hui, Deputy Director of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Strategy Research Center Rong Xueya, Executive Vice President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Lu Lihua and Vice President of Shenzhen University Wang Hui. The start-up internship exchange tour of the Greater Bay Area was officially launched by 32 Mainland students (from Shenzhen University), 20 Hong Kong students (from Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and 27 students from 7 foreign universities.
In response to the call to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, SZU and Hong Kong Polytechnic University jointly set up the International Innovation Institute of the Greater Bay Area in July 2018 to promote the development of the Greater Bay Area in the fields of applied scientific research, innovative talents, transformation of scientific and technological achievements and entrepreneurship cultivation. It is committed to become an international innovation platform for high-quality international resource exchange, high-level innovative personnel training, and the incubation of high-value projects.
As a representative of the joint founding body of the International Innovation Institute of the Greater Bay Area, Lu Lihua, executive vice president of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Wang Hui, Vice President of Shenzhen University, delivered welcoming remarks at the launch. With excitement and joy, they encouraged start-ups in the Greater Bay Area to fuse innovation with integration, to become international and more diversified.
According to Lu Lihua, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Shenzhen University had joined hands to establish the Institute of Innovation, which aims to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of young students through start-up internships and immersion courses, promoting the cooperation and partnership between young people in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and overseas. It is aimed at helping them understand the entrepreneurial ecosystem and market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and inspiring future technology entrepreneurs.
In his introduction, Wang Hui said that since the establishment of SZU in 1983, our university has been committed to training high-level innovative entrepreneurial talents who dare to strive and make breakthrough, leading the progress and development of society. The special project in the undergraduate program is the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Elite Training Camp listed in The Outline of Cultural Innovation and Development of Shenzhen University. It is also the first key cultivation project after the two universities jointly built the International Innovation Institute of the Greater Bay Area. It aims to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking and skills among young people in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the world, to encourage the exchanges and cooperation between students in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and to provide an international platform for their creativity.
The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Elite Training Camp runs from the 26th of May to the 14th of July for 7 weeks. Based in the Greater Bay Area, the camp provides training in cross-cultural entrepreneurship brainstorming with a global outlook; intensive entrepreneurship courses which offer first-hand experience in designing low cost business models, validating and adjusting business plans, presentation (roadshow) of simulation start-up project followed by investors’ reviews. The five-week internships for innovative enterprise will inspire the trainees to approach the industry with an entrepreneurial mindset. During the internship the trainees will visit companies such as Tencent, ZTE and other internationally renowned enterprises and unicorn enterprises, as well as Shenzhen Venture Street, Qianhai Youth Dream Factory and other innovative creative institutes. Promising projects proposed by the trainees will be granted funding from the University Student Entrepreneurship Concept Verification Fund. The International Innovation Institute of the Greater Bay Area will employ innovative entrepreneurship coaches, invite keynote speakers on innovative entrepreneurship and education courses, judges for Start-up Simulation Competition, and arrange visits to companies, and participation in innovation and entrepreneurship simulation challenges. At the end of the internship, certificates of completion will be presented to all students, and award winning certificates to members of the winning group for their outstanding achievements in the entrepreneurial simulation competition.
