Vision Day - To Plant the Seeds for Social Innovation

Environmental sustainability, aging population, developing health care…lots of social dilemma forced China to tackle with urgent needs. Can we find new ways to solve them?

On Dec. 10 2013, the first creative lab for social innovation at Gongyi Xintiandi, sponsored by swissnex China, attracted more than 80 participants. Including one day group discussion and half day planning meeting, the workshop inspired entrepreneurs, NGOs, social entrepreneurs and government as well to come out impactful and initiative way dealing complex issues.

The aim of this Vision Day is to co-design concrete working areas of the initiative, addressing diverse questions like how competences skills are needed, what policy framework should like, how social enterprises and NGOs engage to implement project. 12 groups are divided to bring about social innovation and shared values together.

In the first day morning, two keynote speeches brought inspiration to the discussion. Gu Yuan, the founder and director of AHA Center in Shanghai, which offers education supports to organizations in the field of social innovation. In his speech, “four blind spots“ were highlighted and each of them being a cause for slow evolution in Chinese corporate social innovation:

• Lack of empathy
• Underestimation of local wisdom
• Underutilization of social capital
• Lack of patience

Another keynote speaker, Chandran Nair, the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent think tank focusing on an Asian worldview. In his talk, he encouraged the Asian countries to find their own ideas of how to deal with today’s social instabilities and problems instead of copying from western countries. He believes that strong rules in the cultural, political and social environment are needed, and they have to be set by the state governments and not by private companies.

Executive Director of swissnex China, Pascal Marmier delivered his points of view according to his US experience. He strongly support the idea to bring people from divided sections to the table and work together to fix problems concerning the society, the time and the human beings.

In the afternoon, each group carried out their own projects with different focuses and interesting ideas were presented to everybody: one group planned to set a product chain based on an NGO helping the autism children discover their talents on drawing, and another group named their project as “Four seasons happiness ” to help with social learning by all kinds of community activities.

In the following day, participants who wished to take a lead and co-design the initiative further went together as a round table. We can see that a collaborative social innovation community is forming and we are now waiting to see more programs to follow.

Economic Mission to Xuzhou, 2-3 December 2013

Xuzhou – not Suzhou, is the new destination of the economic mission this year organized by the Swiss General Consulate and SwissCham Shanghai. About 15 Swiss companies from various industries joined this mission. Examples of Swiss companies are Oerlikon, Swiss Re, Panalpina, Swissnex China, etc. 

Xuzhou government warmly welcomed the Swiss Delegation. The delegation had meeting with the Party Secretary of Xuzhou, Mr. CAO Xinping and many other government officials. Mr. Cao introduced the history of Xuzhou city and the current development of the city. He stressed the focuses of Xuzhou’s development strategies: further development and renovation of the city infrastructure, improve ecological environment by increasing the forest coverage. Mr. Cao expressed the will to gain more attention from the Swiss industry and to establish more collaboration between Xuzhou’s local enterprises and the Swiss companies. In name of the whole delegation, Mr. Schellenberg extended the deepest thanks to the government support for this mission. He recalled the first visit in Xuzhou in March this year, and was impressed by the latest development in the last months in Xuzhou. 

Group Photo with Mr. Cao Xinping (middle), Party Secretary of Xuzhou and Mr. Schellenberg, Consul General of Switzerland (forth from left).

During the stay, the Swiss delegation visited XCMG, the world top 5 construction machinery company and Nhwa pharmaceutical company, the first listed pharmaceutical company from Xuzhou. The company visit was followed by interesting discussions with the local companies from Xuzhou Development Zone and Xuzhou High-tech Zone. The discussions provided the companies from both sides to find out the common interest and the complimentary strength. The participants of the delegation did not only get to know the fascinated history about Xuzhou City, but were also very impressed by the current development of Xuzhou. Swiss companies showed strong interest to strengthen the collaboration with local companies in Xuzhou. The local industry also had very open attitude the work together with the Swiss companies, not only in the traditional industries, but also in the field of biomedical technology, IT, safety industry, fine machinery, etc. They would like to talk about not only foreign investment but also joint R&D projects. China University of Mining and Technology, a high-level university located in Xuzhou, showed great interest to have contact to Swiss universities and establish collaboration with the Swiss industrial and academic partners. 

The feedback of this mission was very positive. The participants of the Swiss Delegation appeal for the regular economic missions in this form.  

The view of the XCMG’s manufacturing site

What actually makes this city so interesting for so many Swiss companies? 

Xuzhou is the largest city in northern part of Jiangsu Province. It has been a city of great military importance in the history. And it is the birthplace of the first emperor of Han Dynasty (Liu Bang, 256-195BC). Xuzhou has a population of 9.9 Mio and a total area of 11,259 km2. For the past three years, the city reported the fastest growth rate in Jiangsu. In 2012, its GDP reached RMB 402 billion with an increase of 13.2%. Xuzhou has the world largest Solar Polysilicon Research and Production Base and China’s largest construction machinery research and production base. XCMG ranked top 5 in 2012 among world’s construction companies.  

The major reasons for Xuzhou to attract foreign companies are summarized below:

1. Xuzhou has very convenient transportation networks. With the high-speed train Xuzhou can be reached from Shanghai and Beijing in 2.5 hours. Next year, Xi’an is also reachable in 2.5 hours from Xuzhou. International airport and water transportation are also available. 

2. With its long tradition to be on the top list in China in terms of construction machinery, the city provides a lot of experienced technical human resources and technical expertise in this field. 

3. Compared to other cities in the Yangtze Delta, labor cost in Xuzhou is relatively low. 

Envisioning Food Safety Solutions 2025, 27 November

Even though many actors in the food safety landscape have showing strong commitment, food safety remains a big challenge in China. On Wednesday November 27 at the Napa Wine Bar & Kitchen, swissnex China collaborated with the EHL (hotel management school in Lausanne, Switzerland) organized a food safety event - “Envisioning Food Safety Solutions 2025”. 30 experts participated in the workshop aiming to find new potential solutions to the food safety challenges in China.

All the experts were divided into small groups targeting different issues according to the supply chain comprises producer (farm), distributor, food processor, distributor/wholesale, retailer, caterer, and end consumer.

But, who exactly is responsible for what kind of problems in the food supply chain?

Farms: Excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is one of the causes for unsafe food. Also, environmental pollution (of soil and water) causes contamination, which is also due to the proximity of farming areas and industry.

Distributors: As agricultural products pass through a number of distributors, foodstuff originally not contaminated can get mixed up with contaminated ones, which lead to cross-contamination.

Food processors: Overdose of chemicals is a challenge to food safety. Compared to food processors in Europe and the US, small Chinese food producers bear virtually no risks of losing their reputation. It has been reported that small food processors close down when problems occur and open up again in a different place and/or under new names. This decreases their motivation to make sure the food they produce is safe.

Retailers: Small retailers, e.g. on wet markets, again do not bear the risk of reputation losses. Wholesale retailers and larger retailers face challenges with the large number of certificates of their suppliers. Control and management is complicated which facilitates fraud. Labeling of products sold to consumers can be inaccurate, not up-to-date or missing.

Caterers (hotels and restaurants): Restaurants and hotels face might need to source food from many different sources, which make it difficult to ensure its safety. Again, small enterprises do not need to care too much about reputation losses.

From the consumer perspective, the major problems were information transparency, lack of public awareness and traceability. To deal with these problems, one small group of experts conducted a brainstorming session to come up with ideas of possible solutions, which include

1. More Education and Awareness

• Provide education to farmers
• Educate consumers to have more concerns and knowledge of food
• Offer training for international standard
• Establish training programs for local government
• Call for related party attention
• NGO for consumer education
• School education on food safety
• MOOCS + certification of people

2. Increase Information Transparency

• Website for food scandals
• 3rd Party information
• Information transparency with QR code
• Establish food network
• Create instant food safety apps with review and rating from consumers and authorities
• Develop home DIY Testing Kit

3. Increase Traceability

• Establish and apply international standards using one language
• Health certificate for food workers
• CCTV tracing
• Smart package
• Smart labeling 

4. Shorten the supply chain

• Consumers go to the farms and buy products there
• E-trading (Producer sells directly to the end consumer)

One of the approaches to realize the solutions was Smart Package (with QR code, for example). The food processors pack their product with the smart package to identify their product , which increases the traceability of the food product, improves the communication between the food processor and the end consumers to build up the trust.

Similar brainstorming discussions were conducted in different groups for respective solutions. At the end, a cocktail session was followed to let each group presented their discussion results as well as for further networking. 

swissnex China Lecture: New Industrial Revolution, Nov 4

How many shoes do you need?

No, the topic was not about the latest designs of shoes or the latest edition of running shoes, which would make you run even faster!

Our guest speaker Peter Marsh, former editor of the Financial Times and Author of book "The New Industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalization and the End of Mass Production" shared his insights and thoughts on the evolution of manufacturing and it's future developments. By taking the audience on a journey through the industrial revolutions, he was talking about the history of manufacturing and what the future might hold. Claudio Boër, Senior Adviser swissnex China in Guangdong, presented some interesting thoughts from the perspective of sustainability, by asking how much energy is being "left over" when we don't buy a product, such for example shoes.

Peter Marsh, former editor of the Financial Times and Author of book "The New Industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalization and the End of Mass Production"

Claudio Boër, Senior Adviser swissnex China in Guangdong

Did you know that if 20% of the shoes being produced on the market are not going to be sold, the amount of energy for their production equal to these 20% is 54 million megawatt/hours?

In other words, six large electricity power plants (coal/oil/atomic) are required in order to produce, each year, products that nobody will ever buy! Within the past decades manufacturing in China has rapidly evolved. As prime location for low-cost manufacturing China became the world’s production factory. Being aware of future developments, the audience discussed question for example regarding sustainability, energy and consumer habits. How can we, as individual raise awareness on the consumer side, on its level of demand? Why are products being produced, when there is a constant surplus of 20%? Should mass-production/manufacturing become more regulated? Both experts shared their personal thoughts and views with the audience, who later had the chance for individual talks. 

Soft-landing in Hong Kong, a gateway to China mainland market for international SME

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) is a statutory body set up by the HKSAR Government in 2001. It is positioned to enable science and technology companies to nurture ideas, innovate and grow, supported by local R&D facilities, infrastructure, and services and programmes across five key technology clusters.

Now HKSTPC is launching a 2-year programme called “Soft-landing Programme for Technology and Innovation Collaboration” with its objective to provide a platform for TTOs of overseas universities, research institutes, their spin-off, and start-up companies to promote their innovations and technology to Hong Kong industry and to explore the collaboration and market opportunities in HK/China.

Interested overseas TTOs, R&D centres and their related tech spinoffs and startups are encouraged to submit their list of projects to the park by completing and returning the application form at https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyt5oes9axxar2k/Soft-landing%20Programme%20Flyer.pdf?m.

Shortlisted projects will be entitled to

•           get shared office space for soft-landing purpose during visits to Hong Kong;

•           join networking and match-making activities;

•           participate in familiarisation programme, including factory visits, meetings with industry leaders and workshops;

•           post their project information on the dedicated project website and channels to be provided by HKSTPC; and

•           obtain partial travel support (air-ticket plus hotel accommodation) for the senior executives of overseas TTOs, key researchers and project leaders

For further information, please feel free to contact swissnex China or visit http://www.hkstp.org/

A significant step into a brighter PV future

Plus MAT AG (+MAT), was founded in 2011 as a young start-up in Bern. The core team of +MAT owns more than 50 years of experience in the photovoltaic (PV) industry. The company name stands for "more materials", and reflects its mission to develop new materials for alternative energy.  For +MAT China is a  must-go-to market, given its strong PV industry.

Innovation in recycling

To make PV technology competitive with traditional energy production methods, the biggest challenge today lies in reducing its relatively high production cost and in increasing PV module reliability. +MAT is developing a novel system, including machines, process and service, to recover the precious PV grade Silicon particles wasted during the PV wafer process, and to use them directly in the PV production line again.

For the core project of +MAT, on-site Silicon recovery during PV sawing process, the laboratory feasibility has been proven during the first phase of the project (from July 2011 to June 2012). Since then, a prototype system has been under development thanks to a CTI project between +MAT and ZHAW in Winterthur.

Besides the CTI project, +MAT is financed by the STI foundation and the Economic Promotion of Canton Bern for seed funding. Now +MAT is preparing its market entry and is in active contact with potential pilot-plant partners and prospective clients in China.

Business in China

The world’s largest PV manufacture base is in China with thousands of producers along the value chain. Although suffering overcapacity and anti-dumping restriction in Europe, the whole industry has recovered recently with continuous investment and market consolidation. +MAT anticipates a tremendous recycling demand in the near future with the central government’s emphasis on energy efficiency and environment protection technology. Meanwhile the team is aware that the challenges it faces might be quite different from other start-ups. +MAT business is in PV production, which is strongly influenced by government programs, market force, confidence of investors, producers and users. The recipe for success is not as simple as technology commercialization, but a challenge to balance all influencing factors into the company’s decision making. 

The lessons learned from the start-up of business

+MAT is prepared to stay flexible with its business model without losing sight of what the company wants to do and how to approach its customers. As the market changes a lot and very fast in China, the start-up team will need adapt to new trends in the market. The team has learned that starting a business in a foreign country   takes time and that all aspects should be evaluated.

+MAT was one of the first applications  and has kept dialogue with swissnex China since the launch of CTI-China CAMP. Its founder Ms. Yun Luo is a Chinese who has been working and living in France, Germany and Switzerland for many years, her industrial experience spreads wide over the whole PV value chain. The core team of +MAT also includes other competent and experienced names in PV in Europe. 

During +MAT trip in China, swissnex China organized a workshop for +MAT to communicate with experts on china market entry strategy in swissnex office and accompanied a visit to Zhenjiang city and  met with local government and PV companies.

Additional follow-up can be expected and the liaison support will continue.

Contacts

Plus MAT AG

Höheweg 55, 3054 Schüpfen, Switzerland

Dr. Yun Luo, CEO

Yun.luo@plusmat.ch

Tel: +41 79 393 87 60

www.plusmat.ch

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CTI Market Entry Camp

CTI Market Entry Camp is a training program offered by CTI Start-up Coaching and operated by swissnex. Many high tech start-ups find that the local market in Switzerland does not allow substantial enough growth to achieve scale and profitability.

The CTI, in conjunction with different partners, therefore runs  market entry camps for its start-ups in locations with innovative and rapidly growing markets. Market Entry Camps have been available in San Francisco and Boston since 2010. In 2013 the CTI set up pilot projects for Shanghai, New York and Bangelore together with swissnex.

During their three month stay at the CTI Market Entry Camps, the start-ups work on a number of individual milestones and have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the local business culture, structures and networks to get ready for market entry.

For early stage start-ups there is a possibility to attend a Market Validation Camp, which is shorter and allows start-ups to complement their business plan with an individually adapted internationalisation strategy.

>> http://www.ctistartup.ch/en/services/cti-market-entry-camps/

>> http://www.swissnexchina.org/foryou/cti-china-market-entry-camp

Pioneering Social Innovation in China

 The awakening of China’s astonishing economic growth has inevitably hurled the country to the edge of being in desperate need to tackle the intensifying society problems such as widening wealth gaps, social divides, environmental pollution, inequitable access to health care, education and endowment insurance.

The momentum for social innovation is picking up since then. Under government endorsement, various initiatives have been springing up. As quoted from Wikipedia, social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds — from working conditions and education to community development and health — that extend and strengthen civil society. Social Innovation is emerging worldwide as people realize that it is time to work together to find new solutions to the challenges facing our society. Those engaged in social Innovation apply their own definition of social Innovation, but all definitions have one thing in common: working together towards a sustainable society.

swissnex china has invited Transi.st, an active social innovation incubator” tech+impact” in Shanghai to share their insights on what is happening in this arena.

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Calvin Chin

Co-founder of Transi.st  

Innovation is not usually the first word that comes to mind when one thinks about China. Instead, most people, Chinese or foreigner, would perhaps tend to think of an emerging economic and political juggernaut. A juggernaut built on the productive awakening of a large and industrious population after decades of slow economic growth, heavy investment in infrastructure and an export led economy. Factory for the world: making things faster and cheaper than anywhere else without adding hardly any incremental value from creativity, design or invention. A more nuanced perspective might include the resultant challenges that have come as the cost of this awakening: disparities in economic opportunities and outcomes, social displacement for migrant laborers and rural peasants, uneven or inadequate social services and support for the elderly, the young or the physically handicapped; and of course environmental degradation.

However, it is precisely from this context of growth and dynamic change creating large scale challenges that has created opportunities for real social innovation in China.

Around the world, for many if not most startups, the biggest problem is not usually building the best product. Instead it is finding a problem worth solving. Startups and young companies are resource constrained. Any product that they can offer will literally be the proverbial “Version 1” with significant failings and shortcomings. It is only over time, as the company grows, as the product feature set matures, and as the company’s delivery and service of the product becomes more robust, that the customer’s experience with the product can approach solving or alleviating most of the pain they feel. Therefore, the original pain is so much  that the startup’s barely viable, minimal product is still doing enough to justify the real risks of working with a young and uncertain product and company. This is the true reason why most startups have a difficult time getting market traction. It’s not because the product isn’t good enough, of course it isn’t good enough it’s an immature product from an immature company; they aren’t getting traction because people don’t care enough about the problem being solved to use an incomplete solution.

This is not the case for true social innovators. These startups are grounded in a perspective of customer first, or in actuality, society first or humanity first. Their ambitions are to solve challenges that are massive and acute and fundamental. Armed with purpose, they attract talented teams that display their commitment through the inevitable ups and downs of their startup’s life. This difference between mainstream startups who may be more mercenary, more focused on their own product idea (or copying the product ideas from foreign success stories) and social startups is even more stark in China. Years of large venture capital funds riding a wave of market opening and rapid sectoral growth spread generous returns for many participants without the need for taking substantial early stage risks. Entrepreneurs were incentivized to pitch VCs on whatever startup ideas could convince investors to give the most funding, not necessarily ideas that could convince customers to give the most revenue.

But in this market, and perhaps particularly at this time when it may seem that some of China’s social challenges are reaching breaking points, social entrepreneurs and innovators can see these challenges as problems worth solving and problems worth building companies around.

This is why our company and other Chinese impact investors are more excited than ever to be engaged in this sector. While the ecosystem is still developing, and while there are still fundamental, definitional questions to be explored around governance, regulations and transparency, this is also a moment when we and the social entrepreneurs we support are needed more than ever. Whether their companies are building innovative energy solutions for the homes of marginalized communities or education and quality of life applications for frontline workers or reinventing the way urban waste is disposed of, these companies are moving beyond simply demonstrating that Chinese entrepreneurs can embed social impact into their core operating models. They are scaling their solutions and leading the way towards a healthier market where all companies, even mainstream and traditional industries, remember that they are members of society and must be accountable to all stakeholders.

China’s 7 Strategic Emerging Industries

China is making great efforts to transform a traditional investment-led economy to a more sustainable model of a technology-driven and market-oriented economy. Since the beginning of the new millennium, China state government has created the framework of seven emerging industries that are intended to be important in order to accomplish this goal. 

The State Council of China declared a policy document in 2010 “the Decision on Accelerating the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries”. The industries that gain considerable weight include:

 China 7 Strategic Emerging Industries (SEIs):

1. Energy efficient and environmental technologies
2. Next generation information technology
3. Biotechnology
4. Advanced equipment manufacture
5. New energy
6. New materials
7. New-energy vehicles 

China government is hoping an industrial upgrade by establishing a quantitative target for the SEIs’ contribution on GDP. The SEIs are anticipated to account for 8% of GDP by 2015 and up to 15% of GDP by 2020. 

As usual, SEIs policy has followed the similar pattern to other technology development policies in China, where central government formulates the general guidance and principles while local government bears the responsibility of detail implantation, and both central government and local government will allocate corresponding fund support.  Under the policy direction, a number of government agencies have been engaged in the program.  The program’s implementation is another crucial dimension that takes time because of the repeated debates and the exploration by horizontal coordination among different government key agencies and hierarchy vertical communication.

An inter-ministerial coordination group is required to set up upon the 12th Five Year Plan on the Development of the Strategic Emerging Industries. National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is nominated to take the lead of the coordination group with other group members playing a role of analyzing, overseeing and supporting the implementation.  The following diagram is a briefing on china government agencies involved in SEIs.

 From the government side, financial incentives will be a primary measure to motivate companies to conduct R&D and commercialize new technologies and products in SEI. The incentives include tax rebates and financial subsidies that considerably help company increase investment on SEI.  Most SEI supporting fund will mainly come from local government and private enterprises as the interim measures for the administration of special funds for SEI that emphasizes a combination of funding from various funding sources. Local government will set up specific funding pool or utilize existing funding program to support SEI local development, and determine the allocation of the funds according to local SEI policies and industry demand.

The industry transformation and economy reformation would definitely reshape the market and reshuffle the market players. There are concerns on discrimination against foreign-invested companies and products. Supporting policies usually requires the indigenous intellectual property rights with the goal to cultivate innovation and technology development, which would turn away foreign companies who are unwilling to import intellectual property. Another method is China government procurement that is viewed to be an important measure to promote certain technologies and brands. There are concerns that the procurement policy may favor Chinese companies in SEIs. Given the profound influence and complexity among different stakeholders, the best method of SEIs calls for testing and verification.

Tongji University Incubator

Introduction

Business incubators are designed to support start-ups through the early stage of the development. They provide the start-up companies with nearly all-aspect services such as hardware (space), funds, expertise, management, etc. to improve their chances to survive and succeed. To this end, business incubators are crucial for the development of companies which are characterized by new technologies.

Figure 1  The output of business incubation practices in China (2012).

 Business incubators have grown very fast in China during the past years. Figure 1 shows the corresponding data from the year of 2012. It can be seen that in total 1239 business incubators have been developed. Compared to the data in the year of 2000 (only 164), it is really a big step forward. Now these incubators support around 70,000 enterprises, which have about 1.43 million employees and take up almost 43 million m2 building area. The sum of revenue achieved by these enterprises is up to 490 billion CNY. In China, most business incubators are developed directly by government or universities. They guide opportunities and new ideas not only for start-ups but also for large scale companies. In addition, the form of these incubators is becoming more and more diverse, and as a contrast their functions are moving toward high specialization. Although the scale of business incubators has been developed rapidly, it is still worth noting that most of these incubators locate at the eastern part of China, where many fast developing cities locate and the economic environment is still much better than the western parts. Therefore, the effect of radiation from these incubators to the whole country is relatively limited.

Tongji University Incubator

To gain an insight to the Chinese University Incubator, the Tongji Unversity Incubator based in Shanghai area is taken as an example.  

Tongji University, located in Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China.  Among its various departments, it is especially highly ranked in engineering science. The architecture, urban planning and civil engineering departments have consistently ranked first in China for decades. The automotive engineering, oceanography, environmental science, software engineering and German language departments are also ones of the best domestically. Tongji University is not only famous for its achievements in scientific research, but also is recognized highly by its contribution to the social economy. For example, cooperating with the Shanghai government, it has developed the knowledge and economy circle since the year of 2005, which is centered on the university. The output value created by the corresponding enterprises increases from the initial 3 billion CNY to about 18 billion CNY in 2011. Tongji University plays an important role in the knowledge innovation and industry upgrading during the past years.

Shanghai Tongji Science and Technology Incubator Ltd. was founded in December of 2003 with a registered capital of 8 million CNY. It now locates in the Chifeng Road South Campus of Tongji University, having more than 700 registered companies and around 20,000 m2 official area. As a business incubator, it not only supplies basic offices for the young enterprises but also supports these companies with government registration, financial support and consulting services on taxation, science and technology, etc. During the past years, Tongji incubator has gradually established its professional incubator services platform and improved its existing enterprise services working mechanism, aiming to create the best environment for the incubation and growth of new companies. It has particularly put effort in supporting new entrepreneurships established by the graduated students. In addition, the internal management and control of the incubator is also becoming mature, which passed the Quality System Certification ISO90012008 in the April of 2010. It can be believed that in the future Tongji incubator will continue playing a significant role in technology transfer, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship and job creation.  

Tongji incubator is open to all industry sectors. 37% of the tenant companies have their focus on modern design. This can be traced back to the strength of Tongji University in architecture and design. Electronics and Information Technology represents the second largest group, which is followed by advanced manufacturing, environmental protection, and renewable energy & energy saving.  

Figure 2: Industry sectors of the tenant companies in Tongji Incubator (source: Tongji incubator)

Tongji incubator offers the start-up companies various supports. The rent for the office area is between 1~2 CNY/ m2 / day, which is less than half of the regular rent fee. The tenant companies can have 100% tax refund on the regional level. The incubator team organizes pitching and networking events between the start-ups and VCs quarterly. The incubator also provides marketing and HR service for its start-ups companies. It presents at various expos and networking events, offers free ads for its start-ups, and recruits talents for the start-ups. The financial office of the incubator is not only responsible for the financial issues of the incubator but also serves the start-ups, which does not have the capacity to deal with their own financial issues. Besides, supports for pitching preparation and IP application can also be received from the Tongji incubator. It can be seen from Figure 3 that the number of approved patents has been increasing over the years that the success rate for patent application has also been increased.

Figure 3: Number of patents applied and approved betweeb 2008 and 2011 (source: Tongji incubator)

There are even more polices to attract talent: Interns hired by the start-ups in Tongji incubator will be paid by the local government. High talents (e.g. returnees with own patents) who would like to start businesses in Tongji incubator can receive a compensation for private housing.

Normal incubation time duration is about 3 years. Before entering the incubation, the entrepreneur teams are training intensively to prepare for the pitch. The pitch is mainly attended by the VCs and industrial experts. The teams that pass the selection process could enter the incubator. The college students and graduates from Tongji a fund between CNY 200-500k can be granted by the incubator. This grant can be obtained in forms of debt with zero interest rate or as equity of the incubator limited for 2-3 years.

One third of the start-ups graduated from the incubator successfully according to the speaker of Tongji incubator. After leaving the incubator the companies can move to the accelerator in the Tongji Science and Technology Park, where more places are available and normal polies are applied.

Success story - Techase

Shanghai Techase Environment Protection Co.,Ltd was founded in 2008 by Wenbiao Zhang, right after his graduation from Environmental Engineering Department of Tongji University. Zhang and his team fortunately received 150,000 CNY investments from the Shanghai Students Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation in the same year to establish their own company. Techase is focusing on the development and manufacturing of water treatment equipment, the sludge disposal treatment and recycling, and the environmental engineering services.

To start a new enterprise is not an easy task. At the beginning of the entrepreneurship, Zhang and his teams did not have enough employees so they normally worked more than 12 hours a day to get familiar with the market and also to learn the operation of the equipment. In order to exhibit their services and techniques, Zhang and his team even tried to do the experiments for the market for free. The first order they received is 77,000 CNY, which greatly encouraged their enthusiasm. By the end of the year 2010, Zhang and his team had received more than 20 orders, which supported them to make the first round of finance of about 5.6 million CNY. After five years of development, Zhang made his second round of finance at the beginning of 2013 in about 30 million CNY. He promised to his team members that the company will achieve an output value of 0.1 billion CNY this year, and will appear on the market by the year of 2016.

Considering the successful performances of Techase, Zhang said once that he really appreciates the founder of his company, Tongji incubator. As people recognize, there are many difficulties for graduated students to establish their new enterprises. To this end, Tongji incubator supports in both finance and business experiences. For example, it decreases the rental for the office sites and also contributes with free investment. In this way, Tongji incubator helps decreasing the burden on the young companies, creating favorable environment for their rapid growth.

CHINANO in Suzhou

 CHINANO 2013 Conference & Expo took place in Suzhou, the city that is known as China’s nanotechnology commercialization and innovation hub. The main topics of the conference were nanotechnologies for energy and clean tech, nanotechnology applied in prevention and diagnosis, nano-tech investment matchmaking, etc. Many Chinese nanotechnology companies and international delegations attended the conference and the expo.

Pascal Marmier, the director of swissnex China, gave a presentation about the Swiss innovation in nanotechnology at the international roundtable. His talk gave an overview of the nanotechnology activities in Switzerland and the existing cooperation between Switzerland and Chinese universities in the field of nanotechnologies.  Here is a short summary of his talk at CHINANO 2013.

"Switzerland is considered the pioneer of nanotechnology and belongs to the most innovative countries worldwide in the field of nanotechnology. It started in 1981, as Heinrich Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at Zurich lake, which became the key instrument to open the door to the world of nanotechnology.  

Switzerland has recognized the importance and commercial potential of nanotechnology early on. Many Swiss companies have developed their expertise in nanotechnology and achieved commercial success.  Scheoller Textil AG uses nano-based finishing to develop intelligent textile products, which allow dirt and water to simply run off the surface. The ETH startup Nanograde produces customized nanoparticles. In addition, large pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and Roche in Basel area are the leading force in nanomedicine.

A lot of cooperation between industrial partners and universities accelerate the Swiss innovation in nanotechnology. One is the Nano-Tera initiative. Nano-Tera aims to bring Switzerland to the forefront of a new technological revolution: using engineering and information technology to improve health and security, and to broaden our management of energy and the environment. Nano-Tera has achieved outstanding results in the areas of biosensing, design of medical implants and diagnosis tools, and monitoring systems for the environment.  Several Chinese universities are also involved in this program: Peking University, University of Science and Technology of China, etc."

Reported by Meijun Liu, Academic Intern, MSc. Micro and Nanosystems, ETH Zurich

Geneva signs strategic cooperation agreement with Beijing

Led by the President of the State Council, Charles Beer, a delegation of Geneva representatives visited Beijing to explore collaboration opportunities and to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the Municipality of Beijing. Both sides were thrilled about the start of activities aimed at strengthening connections among the two cities / regions. The Geneva delegation consisted of 40+ business people represented a cross section of industries that are keen to increase their business with China: banking, trading, health services, accounting and legal services. Several leaders of economic development groups: Tourism, Trading industry, Wealth Management completed the group. Their programs featured presentations, networking and one-on-one meetings carefully prepared by the various organizers.

Left top (middle): Mr. Pascal Marmier, Executive Director swissnex China; right top: Mr. Jacques de Watteville, Ambassador of Switzerland; left bottom: Mr. Charles Beer, President of the Geneva State Council; right bottom: Ms. Hong Cheng，Vice mayor of Beijing

swissnex China, especially the Beijing team, was in charge of assisting the University of Geneva (represented by Mr. Mercier of HEC) and the Geneva University of Applied Sciences (HEG, School of Management represented by its Dean Ms. Maribaud). We organized for them various visits in the field of business and management, so that they could get a first hand experience about the China higher education system, and more importantly meet possible partner schools. We believe that this Geneva – Beijing cooperation would indeed be strongly enhanced by academic exchanges that would increase the flow of talents between the two cities!

Latest updates about the Swiss SME progress in the South China

Paradox Engineering

Paradox Engineering (PE) has designed and developed PE.AMI, a pioneering Smart City solution building an Internet of Things ready unified network communication platform allowing Cities to implement several advanced urban services and applications, such as Advanced Meter Reading, Lighting Management, Traffic Management, EV Chargers Management, and many more.

On 17th December 2012, Mr. Gianni Minetti turned to swissnex China, looking into the Smart City market in China. As time goes on, swissnex helped PE in Several meeting in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan. PE found two trustful partners in the South, 1) Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (SSGKC) and 2) Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen (RITS). MoUs were signed recently. In coming November, PE is invited to the 2013 China (Dongguan) International Science and Technology Cooperation Week.

In order to fertilize the progress in China, PE is looking for Chinese Engineer who has study experience in Switzerland. Based on the MoUs between SUPSI and the Chinese Universities, MSE Joint Master Program offers great Talent Pool and one student has already been interviewed by PE.

Fig: On behalf of Mr. Minetti--President of PE, Prof. Boer signed the MoU with SSGKC. 

Protoscar

LAMPO prototype is an electric super sports car developed by Protoscar. LAMPO3 is the most powerful full electric 2+2-seater in the world. It also is the first electric vehicle equipped with two different DC fast charging inlets. “LAMPO Ltd.” is ready to spinoff from parent company Protoscar, looking for the best matching partner.

In School of Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU), Top 10 University in China, an excellent team working on Battery Electrical Vehicle, who had already cooperation with University of Applied Science Lucerne, is trying to get in touch with Protoscar, seeking cooperation opportunities on LAMPO3. A feasibility study within SYSU internal in carried on.

Fig: Prof. Tan, SYSU, visited Protoscar in Switzerland, and drove Lompo2

Guangdong Zhengye Technological Liability Limited Company

Guangdong Zhengye Technological Liability Limited Company is a high and new-tech enterprise and is engaged in precision detection equipment and electronic materials, including X-ray, TDR impedance, hole checker.

Now they are in demand of small hole drilling in PCB, Laser water jet cutting in glass, PCB spray printing, 3D CT (tomography). Switzerland is well-known for technology innovation. Zhengzye turned to Swissness to find a link to Swiss precision manufacturing industry.

Furthermore, as a long terms strategy, in order to better communicate, understand, cooperate with Swiss, Zhengye send one young employee to SUPSI for year’s MSE study. Senior Engineers and managers are proposed to Switzerland for short term training.

Fig: In MSE China Module 2013, students visit Zhengye Ltd.

swissnex China participates workshop “ The interplay between Innovation and Law”

23, August - swissnex China joins an invitation-only workshop to share insights and explore the development of an analytical framework on innovation and law for future reference.  The workshop members are from diversified background with a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspective, interacting and building upon case studies, use cases, and examples from around the world.  During the morning discussion, audience have different definitions on innovation and the progress, imitation is a buzz word frequently quoted to harshly compare with innovation, which mirrors the current status in Chinese market and leads to a hot discussion on variables between china , US and European from culture, economic, legal infrastructure aspects.  In the afternoon session, audience debate the pros and cons of law with the impact on innovation,  whether law infrastructure fuels or constrains the progress of innovation. It concludes that law system in china requires an improvement and transform to a stimulator of innovation.

The workshop has reached a success and might also lead to a follow-up meeting in form of symposium or conference with expanding audience. 

Life & Health R&D Forum: Infectious Diseases and Vaccination

The Embassy of Switzerland, in collaboration with swissnex China and Swiss Re, organized the Life & Health R&D Forum, which took place on August 15, 2013. The half-day event, which was held at the Lakeview Hotel of Peking University, was preceded by a pre-conference in the form of a lunch, where Federal Councilor and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs Alain Berset and the speakers had an opportunity to exchange insights in their respective research fields. 

Federal Councilor and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs Alain Berset, who was accompanied by his delegation, opened the forum with a speech, where he addressed Switzerland’s commitments to international cooperation in addressing infectious diseases that are not bounded by geographical national borders. Among the participants were researchers and practitioners from top universities and established corporations.

In the evening of August 16th all speakers of the forum were invited for a dinner at the Residence of the Embassy of Switzerland.

Roboy Shanghai Tour

Roboy, the revolutionary humanoid robot born in 9 months, is developed by a team consisting of a number of research institutions and leading private companies, which is led by the Artificial Lab of the University of Zurich with its Director Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer. It represents the future of robots and the true spirit of Swiss innovation in science and technology. Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer and his team are taking the Roboy on a tour around the world. On 13th, August, they visited Shanghai, and co-organized a robot show with the Department of Automation from Jiao Tong University in Shanghai Science & Technology Museum. Two robots from Jiangtong University - “Jiao Long” tour-guide robot and “Jiao Long” intelligent wheel chair were exhibited together with Roboy and interacted with each other as well as visitors in the museum. The show became a great hit in the museum and attracted hundreds of kids on the spot.

In the evening, the 2nd episode of the robot show moved to swissnex China. Prof. Weidong Chen, Director of Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Information Processing, and Prof. Pfeifer did presentations to the public to introduce the “behind the scene” story of their robots. The audiences raised many questions, as they were very curious and amazed by the robots’ performance.

APEC China CEO Forum 2013

“China in Transition: New Leadership, New Prospects” was the topic of the APEC China CEO Forum 2013, which took place in Beijing from July 12-14.

It represented a platform to discuss issues such as how to move China from “Quantity Qrowth” to “Quality Growth”, how to make the “Green Leap Forward”, how China’s economy will perform in the next years, and what the Internet era will hold for the business world in the future.

The forum hosted many renowned speakers, among others:

• Zhang Baowen, Vice Chairman, Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress
• Richard C. Koo, Chief Economist, Nomura Research Institute
• Dr. Kai-fu Lee, Chairman & CEO, Innovation Works
• V. Paul Lee, ABAC Representative of Canada, Managing Partner, Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd
• Jing Ulrich, Managing Director and Chairwoman, Global Markets, China, J.P. Morgan

A hot topic of debate was Innovation in China.

For instance, Richard Koo explained that if one can make a lot of money without innovating, one will not innovate and that China is now going through the same process as Japan did some three decades ago.

He also expressed his concern with regards to China’s education system, saying that students in the USA get an “A” for challenging the teacher and that this does not seem to be the case in China at all.

Another highly contentious question was:

“Future technological innovation will mainly come from the East rather than the West: Agree or Disagree?”

Kai-fu Lee opened the dialogue by saying that today, visionaries like Steve Jobs are less needed. Through the Internet companies can develop a new product to respond to the needs of a small user group. By exposing the product to this group, they can learn from the feedback and experience whilst improving the product.

Paul Lee entered the discussion by championing why he thinks that in the next twenty years, innovations will mainly come from the West rather than the East/China:

1. The West teaches you how to think, the East how to learn.
2. The legal system of the East, and China in particular, inhibits innovation.
3. The financial system in the East is not well-developed enough to provide innovators with capital.
4. The West exhibits a society based on meritocracy, the East based on paternalism.
5. The availability and transparency of information in the East is limited.
6. For the East's leadership it is easier to copy and “stick with what works” rather than setting sail for new grounds.

The friendly exchange of blows began when Kai-fu Lee argued why the East/China has at least a chance at being more innovative than the West:

1. There is a strong information asymmetry; Chinese entrepreneurs know what is happening in the US, particularly in Silicon Valley, but vice versa this is not the case, yielding a great potential.
2. Chinese innovators are more hard-working than their Western counterparts.
3. China has a stronger focus on efficiency; products are developed faster than in the West (e.g. Tencent’s products).
4. China represents a larger homogeneous market than the West.
5. The competition in China is a lot fiercer, which gives rise to superior business models (compare WeChat to WhatsApp or Taobao to eBay).

Paul Lee stated that he agrees with all of Kai-fu Lee’s points. However, he argued that notwithstanding, it will take much more time for the latter six points to make a difference, because the West and the East are not on a level playing field.

Undoubtedly, the complexity of the issue is high, and there are many factors that could lastingly influence the dynamics. There are exciting times ahead.

SERI Delegation Visit Shanghai

From 10th-12th July 2013, swissnex China had the great pleasure to welcome a diverse delegation of Swiss scientists, professors, and innovation experts led by Dr. Mauro Dell’Ambrogio, Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation. The delegation further included:

• Mauro Moruzzi: Ambassador, Head of International Relations for the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI
• Prof. Ralph Eichler: President of ETH Zurich
• Prof. Hyung Gyu Park: Professor for Energy Technology at ETH Zurich
• Prof. Herbert Binggeli: President of Bern University of Applied Sciences
• Prof. Gian-Luca Bona: CEO of Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)
• Waltern Steinlin: President of CTI (Swiss Innovation Agency)
• Dr. Mario El Khouri: CEO Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM)

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The delegation arrived late on 10th July and began its official visit the next morning with a roundtable discussion with the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission on the topic “Science to market and innovation”.  Next stop was the Jiao Tong University, Minhang Campus, where the delegation met with the president and professors of the university, and visited the Paris Tech Institute on the campus.  In the evening, swissnex China, with the support of SwissCham Shanghai, organized an event on “What’s driving Switzerland’s success in Education, Research and Innovation?” at the Swissôtel Grand Shanghai. All members of delegation held a short presentation about their work and experience followed by a Q&A session and a lovely cocktail reception.

The next day was as busy and fruitful as the day before. The first stop was the Pudong Zhangjiang Hitech Park where the delegation visited SMIC, a public-private partnership in the semiconductor field, and the Novartis construction site. After having lunch with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the group transferred to swissnex China’s offices to attend different presentations and a roundtable on innovation with several guests: Prof. Claudio Boer of swissnex China, Dieter Voegtli, Head Asia of Bühler Group, and Dr. Marc Laperrouza, Lecturer at HEC Lausanne and EPFL. The short visit of the delegation ended with a debriefing dinner with the Consul General of Switzerland, Heinrich Schellenberg.

We hope they enjoyed their stay in Shanghai and returned safe with many new contacts established, many interesting experiences made, and many lasting impressions gained. 

First Edition of the Swiss Business Awards in Beijing

The Swiss Business Awards have announced the winners of its first edition during an exclusive gala evening held at the Grand Hyatt Beijing on July 7th, 2013. More than 300 guests attended the event, including top economic and political leaders from both Switzerland and China. The ceremony was part of the official program of the delegation from Switzerland lead by Federal Councilor J. Schneider-Ammann coming to Beijing for the signature of the Free Trade Agreement between Switzerland and China.

“It is important to celebrate success, especially in times of uncertainty. A number of Swiss companies, large and small, have shown particular determination, courage, skill and hence success in their China business ventures. At the same time, Chinese entrepreneurs and businessmen have not been sleeping either and done a great job”, affirmed H.E. Ambassador Jacques de Watteville in his welcome address. "I am proud to see how successful and innovative Swiss enterprises are performing in China. I am proud to see how Chinese companies are successfully investing in Switzerland", affirmed H.E. Federal Councillor Schneider-Ammann in his opening speech. 

The Swiss Business Awards is an event organized by the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Beijing to thank companies for their achievements over the past years and to recognize their contribution to both the Swiss and Chinese business communities. This is the first year that the Swiss Business Awards are organized in China. In five different categories, the Awards honored companies and individuals who have achieved distinct results and demonstrated the highest level of commitment to the Sino-Swiss community and the promotion of Switzerland in China.

SwissCham Beijing has invited all fully or partially Swiss-owned companies doing business in China as well as all Chinese companies or organizations with a strong link to Switzerland to participate in the Swiss Business Awards. The applications of the award candidates have been reviewed by an independent jury consisting of representatives of the SwissCham Board of Directors, the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, and the private sector.

The winners this year are

• ABB (China) Ltd. for the Nestlé Innovator of the Year
• Holcim Ltd. for the China Haidian CSR Company of the Year
• Swisstouches Hotels & Resorts for the Startup of the Year
• Nestlé (China) Ltd. for Outstanding Achievements
• Sinopec (Addax Petroleum) for Chinese Investor in Switzerland

Courtesy of SwissCham Beijing; for more information visit SwissCham Beijing’s website.

Free Trade Agreement Signed by Switzerland and China

The Free Trade Agreement between Switzerland and China was signed last Saturday at the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. Undoubtedly, it marks a new era in Sino-Swiss relations. This major milestone was preceded by many others.

One of the first ones dates back to 2007, when the Swiss government recognized China’s full market economy status. This was followed by a discussion on a feasibility study on an FTA in 2009. 2010 saw the conclusion of this study with both parties endorsing its conclusions and recommendations by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on August 13th, 2010. Actual negotiations began in 2011 and comprised nine rounds. And on July 6th, 2013, Federal Councilor Johann Schneider-Ammann and Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng both inked the final version of the FTA.

What will now follow are the ratification processes of China and Switzerland. On the Swiss side its duration may take anywhere from one-and-a-half years to several. On the Chinese side it is expected to take less long.

Workshop on 3D printing and bio-materials

 3D printing is a buzzword in china now.  Universities and industry are passionate in the technology application in medtech area like artificial bone, dental implant, cardiovascular stent, as well as the application in aviation industry. As for consumer sector, you can find hundreds of household 3D-printing machines from Taobao.com. Heritage protection organization in Gansu province begin to utilize 3D printing in the fabrication of Buddhism stature fixed in Mogao Grottoes and exhibit the duplicates in other cities.

Swissnex China hosted a workshop on 22nd June with a group of 20 audience, discussing about the future uncertainty of this technology currently popular in china. Four professors and industrialists also shared with the public their insights on 3D printing prospects in the design, material, medtech industry. Is it a fad or pragmatic technology? What kind of negative consequences may end up with? Technology is always a two-bladed sword as said.