Gathering Talents, Pooling Intelligence for High-Tech Development! The final and award ceremony of the 3rd Yancheng Overseas Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in Yandu District on October 24th. Sixteen selected high-level talent teams, both domestic and overseas, gathered in Yandu for the final competition, forging new driving forces for Yandu’s high-quality development. Lü Jiayong, the Deputy Inspector of Jiangsu Provincial Association for Science and Technology, Minister of the International Department, and Director of the Overseas Talent Office, Ni Yihua, Deputy Minister of the Organization Department of Yancheng Municipal Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Talent Work Leading Group Office, Wei Aijun, Secretary of the Party Group and Chairman of Yancheng Municipal Association for Science and Technology, Zhang Lili, Member of the Party Group and Vice Chairman of Yancheng Municipal Association for Science and Technology, Zhou Dahu, Member of the Standing Committee of Yandu District Committee and Minister of the Organization Department, Li Xiaodong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Yandu District High-Tech Zone, and Zhu Ping, Chairman of Yandu District Association for Science and Technology, attended the event.
The competition was organized by the Overseas Talent Office of Jiangsu Provincial Association for Science and Technology, Yandu District Committee of the Communist Party of China, Yandu District People’s Government, and Yancheng Municipal Association for Science and Technology.
In his speech, Minister Lü Jiayong stated that the Provincial Association for Science and Technology will fully leverage the advantages of scientific and technological innovation resources within the association and the overseas resources of members of the Jiangsu Innovation Alliance. They will support Yandu District as well as Yancheng in exploring new models of overseas intelligence work, achieving new breakthroughs, and striving to provide “sunshine, rain, and soil” for every overseas innovator and entrepreneur. At the same time, he hopes that Yandu District can actively connect with overseas talents and provide a broader stage for these outstanding participants and teams, striving to attract more excellent projects to settle in Yandu and jointly create a new chapter in career development.
Minister Ni Yihua proposed in his speech that talents are the primary resource and innovation is the driving force. Behind the self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology lies the self-reliance and self-improvement of talents. The Yancheng Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government have always attached great importance to talent work. They have deepened the implementation of the “Yellow Sea Pearl Talents Plan,” integrated and issued the policy documents of the “1+7” talent strong city, organized and implemented the “Strong Talent Chain” action, and focused on the construction of talent living facilities. They have carried out the “Huiyan” Action for outstanding students from prestigious schools and the “Juyan” Action for ten thousand students, actively building talent advantages and continuously leading high-quality development. In recent years, Yandu District has always adhered to the talent-led development strategy, particularly emphasizing the use of competitions to attract and nurture overseas talents to come to Yancheng for development, striving to create a gathering place, a nurturing ground, and a place for value realization for top talents.
During the roadshow session, the 16 teams of innovation and entrepreneurship projects engaged in intense competition and shared their brilliant ideas from various aspects such as “technology and products,” “business models and implementation plans,” “industries and markets,” and “team building.” The competition invited seven judges, including Jia Qingwei, a foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chen Cheng, Director of the International Technology Transfer Center of Zhejiang University-Zhejiang California International NanoSystems Institute, and Zhao Feng, a senior investor at Zhongke Guohua, to question and guide the roadshow projects from the core team, market prospects, technological innovation, and the possibility of project settlement. The projects were also scored on-site based on their roadshow performance. The project “National Industrialization of Neural Network Processor Chips” ultimately won the first prize in this competition.
As a bridge and platform to attract overseas high-level talents and teams for innovation and entrepreneurship in Yandu District, the Yandu Overseas Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has been held for three consecutive years. The previous two competitions attracted project registrations from 48 countries and regions, welcomed more than 40 high-tech talent projects for visits in Yancheng, and signed intention agreements for 12 projects to settle down. This year’s competition attracted a total of 127 high-quality talent projects, including 79 doctoral team projects. After two months of intense competition, 17 projects emerged as winners.
In recent years, the Yandu District has attached great importance to talent work and has made it a pioneering, strategic, and foundational project to promote the construction of a talent-strong city in the new era. It is committed to creating a national demonstration area for integrating talents and high-quality development along the coast. To vigorously implement the innovation-driven development strategy and accelerate the progress of key scientific and technological innovation projects, the district has introduced three major plans: the “Scientific and Technological Innovation Forest” for growth, the improvement of research platforms, and the “Duzhihui” plan for outstanding talents. The goal is to transform Yandu District into a place where talents gather, are nurtured, and realize their value, attracting more outstanding talents from home and abroad to come to Yancheng and establish themselves in Yandu District, and to contribute to the development of the region and write a chapter of their own in life.
During the award ceremony of the Yandu Overseas Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, several important activities were held, including the signing ceremony for the landing of previous award-winning projects, the signing ceremony of the framework cooperation agreement between Yandu District and Xidian University, the keynote speech by Balogh Áron, First Secretary and Science and Technology Counselor of the Embassy of Hungary in China, and the Artificial Intelligence Industry Development Roundtable Forum.