The 2016 "Intelligence & Creation & Future" innovation forum, as part of the Beijing OTEC (Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference), was inaugurated on July 30, and declared the first of Chaoyang district's four international talent innovation and entrepreneurship "harbors", which will help returnees to start businesses through communication in commercial design, marketing, production and capital through an entrepreneur platform and hundreds of varied activities.
The OTEC has been held four times with 19 countries and regions, 12,000 entrepreneurs and more than 60 investment institutions involved. Three hundred out of the over 2900 projects have found investment, including programs in intelligent hardware, mobile Internet, environmental protection, medical health, sports, new consumption modes and data applications.
According to an officer of the Chaoyang OTEC center, the four "harbors" are the Node Innovation Center, the CHAO Workclub, the Woospace and the DayDayUp. They will provide business beginners with professional advice and assistance in the early period, so that entrepreneurs can be motivated and inspired.
As the OTEC mainly attracts small enterprises with business risks and different development needs, these "harbors" will also offer enterprises special services in accordance with their needs and organize returnees to share their experiences and skills to increase the start-up success rate.
The officer pointed out that Chaoyang has many embassies, 90 percent of Beijing's global media, 80 percent of international organizations and chambers of commerce, 70 percent of regional head offices of multinational corporations, 65 percent of foreign financing institutions and 50 percent of world conferences and exhibitions. These advantages make Chaoyang an important area of the city and help it attract more talents and enterprises to boost economic growth. The Chaoyang district government has for its part begun a Phoenix Program to give funding and support to entrepreneurs from overseas.
"Chaoyang is attractive to overseas talents not only because of its favorable environment, policies and platforms, but also because they’re open-minded investors here," said the officer.
The 2016 OTEC has a new program called "returnee investor league", which will encourage investors with overseas experience to communicate with each other and find profitable business. It will hold activities in the international talent harbors every month in the form of salons and road show forums. Fang Aizhi, the CEO and copartner of the ZhenFund, which is one of the investor league's founders, said that she is willing to invest in any program with a good team.