Int'l Business Conference Held In ShanghaiAn international conference to discuss business incubation and technology innovation was held Tuesday in Shanghai.Attending the two-day conference were 494 domestic and overseas hi-tech experts, scholars, investors as well as government officials. Song Jian, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and also president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), gave an opening-day speech on the prospect of business incubation and technology innovation in the 21st century. The meeting is designed to encourage the country's young service providers to help hi-tech developers and was jointly sponsored by U.N. Development Program and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the CAE. The term "business incubation" originated in the US in the 1950s, when some companies and organizations were set up to offer package services to venture firms, which included providing production and communications systems as well as financial and legal consultation. Such services are important for cutting production costs and bridging the transformation period from research findings to products. By the end of 1998 there were over 3,300 business incubation companies around the world, mainly based in the US and Europe. Business incubation emerged in China about ten years ago, and the country now has over 100 such companies. |
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