Shenzhen hosts venture capital event in Beijing, eyes innovation boost

Luohu district of Shenzhen city in south China's Guangdong Province hosted the Venture Capital Day of Shenzhen event in Beijing on May 22, aiming to boost the impact of industrial innovation achievements, cultivate new quality productive forces, establish a strong industrial ecosystem, and promote coordinated development between Beijing and Shenzhen.

Luohu district of Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong Province, holds the Venture Capital Day of Shenzhen in Beijing on May 22, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Wang Shaoshao)

To date, the Venture Capital Day of Shenzhen event has gathered over 6,000 venture capital institutions and facilitated fund cooperation exceeding 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion).

The event included one main venue and four sub-venues, where participants delved into discussions on topics ranging from the innovative allocation of financial resources to advancements in cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, as well as strategies for cultivating new quality productive forces.

Zuo Jinping, mayor of the Luohu district, stated that Luohu had developed an industrial structure spanning finance, trade, business services, and strategic emerging industries.

Highlighting Luohu's investment advantages and support for enterprises in terms of space, policies, and funding, Zuo expressed hope that the event would encourage closer cooperation between the financial and high-tech industries in Beijing and Shenzhen, contributing to the development of new quality productive forces.

As of the end of March, Shenzhen was home to 1,700 private equity and venture capital management firms, with a combined management scale exceeding 1.5 trillion yuan. These firms had invested in 13,000 innovation-driven enterprises nationwide, including 370 billion yuan in high-tech companies.

Photo shows a sub-venue of the Venture Capital Day of Shenzhen event themed on artificial intelligence, Beijing, May 22, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Wang Shaoshao)

Government officials from Beijing and Shenzhen, along with representatives of sci-tech innovation projects and venture capital investors, discussed ways to channel venture capital investment into boosting the real economy and developing new quality productive forces.

Xicheng district in Beijing, a key participant in the event, boasts a thriving financial industry, with the asset scale of its financial institutions surpassing 150 trillion yuan, accounting for approximately one-third of the total assets held by financial institutions nationwide, according to Cheng Xue, director of the district's economic promotion bureau.

The district has established itself as a key player in China's financial sector, attracting a significant portion of the country's financial assets and institutions.

The Venture Capital Day event allowed Shenzhen and Beijing to pool resources and nurture a thriving venture capital industry ecosystem, advancing collaborative development between the two cities.

During the event, the Luohu District People's Government and People's Daily Online signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly establish an AI-driven innovation accelerator, utilizing the media outlet's 828 Enterprise Service Platform to generate new quality productive forces.

In recent years, many places in the country have been actively developing high-tech industries such as big data and AI, providing policy support and service guarantees for sci-tech innovation.

Luohu district has long been recognized as a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship in China.

In recent years, Luohu has ramped up efforts to develop strategic emerging industries and future-oriented sectors, focusing on growth in key areas such as software, information services, and healthcare as part of its push to cultivate new driving forces for sustainable development.

Luohu is home to 936 strategic emerging enterprises, including 618 national high-tech enterprises and 261 specialized and sophisticated enterprises that produce new and unique products.

The district also boasts 103 innovation carriers, with two at the national level, 44 at the provincial level, and 57 at the municipal level.