Innovation Week aims to give startups a funding boost

A series of events aimed at boosting business innovation and providing access to capital for startup companies will be held in Beijing and seven other major cities next week.

The first government-led Innovation Week, featuring nearly 200 activities from Tuesday through Oct 23, is sponsored by the National Development and Reform Commission and organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

"To further encourage people to start up their own businesses and to make innovation on a large scale, events will build platforms and create opportunities for startups," said Li Pumin, the commission's secretary-general.

"We have seen how situations have changed compared to the last burst of startups in China in the late 1980s and in 1990s — more college graduates from home and abroad started their own businesses," Li said. "We hope that events held during the week could attract more people and they could benefit from policies rolled out by government in every stage of business development in the future."

Event highlights include summit forums on Monday and Tuesday that will focus on policy interpretation, and a competition co-sponsored by the Song Ching Ling Foundation on Oct 22.

Participants in the competition will have opportunities to communicate with mentors, receive feedback from venture capitalists, access crowdfunding and be introduced to other funding channels.

"Giving full play to our social resources, we hope to help participating startups in the early stages and help them make connections to venture capital," said Wang Wenduo, deputy director of the Employment Promotion Department at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Organizers said Innovation Week is an effort to push the work championed by Premier Li Keqiang, who urged local government to offer more support to small businesses.

The government intends to organize an annual Innovation Week every October.