The first Internet-themed café opened in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in December 2014. (Photo: People.cn)

Guo Ming, a 27-year-old Internet operation manger, dreams of setting up his own shops one day. He frequents a maker-themed café in Zhongguancun, which is China’s Silicon Valley, and talks for hours with fellow business starters.

As more young people embark on their business adventure, deputies attending this year’s two sessions believe that China will embrace an era of young entrepreneurs, who will be a new engine of China’s social and economic progress.

According to statistics issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, in 2014 alone, the number of first-time business starters reached over 2.91 million, and newly-registered companies grew by 21.6 percent over 2015. 

As the country increases its efforts to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, young people are seen as the main force for the nationwide spree. Against this background, youth entrepreneurship is also a topic dominating this year’s two sessions.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, mentioned “entrepreneurship” 22 times and stressed that the country should unleash its societal potential to promote mass entrepreneurship and innovations in his government work report

Many advisors and National People’s Congress deputies contributed their suggestions at the two sessions. Some suggested a trust fund should be set up to further shore up youngsters’ business dream, and others advised more favorable loan policies.

Li Yining, a deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has been researching people like Guo for years. According to his research, a diverse group of people, usually college graduates, post graduates or PhD students and researchers often gather in coffee shops to exchange creative ideas. 

“The same situation happened in the US before. Bill Gates was a regular at a café near university 30 years ago,” Li explained. Seeing this trend, Li said he believes a booming age of innovation is coming, or about to come. 

To encourage more young people to engage in entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Education has taken a spate of measures to help college students start their own businesses. According to Education Minister Yuan Guiren, the ministry encouraged universities to start entrepreneurship classes, and invite business heavyweights to give lectures. He urged that practical guidance and necessary financial supports could also be provided.

In addition, a flexible system can also be adopted, so that those studying on elite programs can launch the startups first and then later return to school for their education, Yuan said. 

A huge crowd of entrepreneurs and people who plan to start a business were attending an entrepreneurship salon in Zhongguancun on March 10. (Photo: Bao Congying from People.cn)