Xinhua Insight: State support brings overseas entrepreneurs

Ma Tsang is busy preparing for the launch of his new drone company on the Chinese mainland.

Before the Hong-Kong native moved his start-up to the mainland at the beginning of this year, he was having trouble attracting investment. In early 2015, Ma joined a reality show encouraging entrepreneurship on China's state broadcaster CCTV, and immediately received 3 million yuan (470,400 U.S. dollars) of financing.

"I couldn't imagine launching my own products right now if it were not for the investment," Ma said.

Entrepreneurs from overseas are lapping up opportunities presented as the Chinese government encourages innovation and entrepreneurship.

Earlier this month, the Communist Party of China issued the full text proposal for China's development over the next five years, which says China will continue to encourage mass entrepreneurship through major scientific and technological projects.

The proposal sets guidelines and targets for future development, highlighting innovation, coordination, green development, opening-up and sharing.

China will step up reform and innovation, accelerate the shift of growth models and economic restructuring, address difficult issues in development, cultivate new drivers and new edges for development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday at the ongoing APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in the Philippines.

He said China will pay more attention to efficiency and quality, innovation, equity and justice, green development, and opening to the outside world.

This has brought more prospects for entrepreneurs who are struggling with a dearth of finance outside the mainland.

FLOOD OF INVESTMENT

State encouragement has helped pool investment for start-ups in China.

In September, the State Council, China's cabinet, decided to allocate 15 billion yuan in funds to help develop small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It aimed to set up a 60-billion yuan development fund with the participation of private and state-owned businesses, as well as financial institutions and local governments.

In the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, more than 8,000 investment institutions have sprung up, with a combined asset exceeding 400 billion yuan, latest figures from the local government showed.

"An increasing number of investment institutions have seen the opportunities brought by state encouragement of innovation and entrepreneurship," said Wang Tao, General Manager of Guangdong-based Yueke Technology Financial Group. The group recently launched an Internet platform for start-ups, promising free training and low start-up costs for entrepreneurs.

EASIER ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Government encouragement has seen entrepreneurs from outside the mainland in dire need of money flood to mega-cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to start businesses. Currently there are about tens of thousands of such "Chuangke" ("makers" in Chinese) who long for success with start-ups, mostly young people who have finished studies overseas.

Wang Lei, who studied in the United States and Canada, returned to China to join in an "entrepreneurship incubator" in 2014. In under two years, he managed to register a company and draw investment. Earlier this month, Wang started crowdfunding for his "smart eyeshades" on the platform provided by China's e-commerce giant Jingdong Group.

"These days, it is easier to start companies in China, not only in terms of investment, but also recruiting people for work teams," Wang said.

Governments at the local level have given great support for such incubators, offering free spaces, equipment and cheap accommodation for those with the ambition to make it in the "tide of entrepreneurship."

In a four-storey office building in central Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, more than 1,400 "Chuangke" were busy working on their businesses when Xinhua visited this week.

The "entrepreneurship incubator," with more than 300 square meters on each floor, hosts entrepreneurs from 94 cities and 12 countries, according to its head Cai Yanqing. "Here it is cheap and easy to launch their careers," Cai said.

Tao Shizheng, also a returned student, said the favorable conditions on the mainland makes it much easier than in many other places around the world.

"In places like Hong Kong and Singapore, it is not easy to launch start-ups because the monthly rent for an office building would be more than 100,000 yuan," Tao said at an "entrepreneurship incubator" in Guangdong's Dongguan City, which offers a free office building and free living rooms for people like Tao.

Shi Jinbo, who used to study and work in Hong Kong, has recently received a 30-million-yuan investment from Sequoia Capital in Guangdong. The investment has finally given her a factory to make the robots developed by her company QKM.

"The rising tide of entrepreneurship on the mainland will bring more opportunities for people like us," she said. Endi