Shanghai Incubators to Hatch High-tech

Conference on Business Incubation & Technology Innovation Opens in Shanghai

The rapid development of high-tech business in China was supported by participants at the International Conference on Business Incubation and Technology Innovation held in Shanghai from April 16 to 18, China Daily reports.

The conference, held at the International Convention Center in Pudong, was one activity to mark the 10th anniversary of Pudong's opening up and development.

Song Jian, who pioneered the incubator concept in China, said the conference was a great opportunity for China to learn about high-tech industries from developed countries.

Incubation and technological innovation have become key stimuli for economic growth in the world since the 1950s.

"China must make greater efforts in this field, even at the cost of sacrificing some traditional industries, for its future development," said Song, also president of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

"Only by doing that, can we increase China's competitiveness and obtain higher status in the world," he said.

Since Song called for establishing the first incubator in China with the help of the UN Development Program in the 1970s, 110 incubators and technological innovation zones or centers have been established in the nation.

Among them, 53 State-level New and High-tech Industry Development Zones contributed to the total export, valued at US$10 billion and total profit of 35.6 billion yuan (US$4.30 billion) in 1999.

However, overall technological innovation in China is still lagging, Song added.

"More efforts should be made to introduce the market economy system, venture capital investment and improvement of the country's education and scientific research and development," he said.

The most recent effort in that direction, he said, was the central government's decision to transform more than 4,000 scientific research institutes in China into market-oriented enterprises.

Song said that the next step would be technological updates at large- or medium-sized State-owned enterprises to increase their competitiveness.