Xi'an to attract entrepreneurs to take off

A takeoff plan to further promote economic development through innovation and entrepreneurship was initiated over the weekend in Beilin district, Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

As part of Xi'an city's entrepreneurial efforts, the takeoff plan in Beilin district will take advantage of a large number of institutes and universities concentrated in the district to continue and deepen the reform of institutional mechanisms, in order to utilize technological innovation from the institutes and universities.

"With technology and innovation as the guidance, we will further gather new production factors such as knowledge, technology, information and data to develop the new economy and cultivate new energy," said Hou Xuedong, deputy head of Beilin district.

World famous technological enterprises and universities including Microsoft and Peking University will play a part in the plan.

Sandy Gupta, vice president of public utilities of Microsoft, said that Microsoft was building accelerators and incubators worldwide and chose Beilin district as its first location for an incubator layout since 2016.

"We got great support from the city and district government and our incubator in the district benefited from strong innovative talents in the universities and institutes concentrated in the district, which was a great help for us to take our world-class technology here to serve the city, the northwestern region of China and even the world," Sandy Gupta said.

According to Hou, the district will establish 100 public innovation space gathering areas with special characteristics under the new plan, and areas with two million sq meters are expected to cultivate 3,000 high-tech startups.

"We also plan to establish a fund of at least 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) to support small startups, a fund of at least 100 million yuan for venture investment and a win-win fund of one billion yuan, as well as beneficial policy and good service in order to attract world top talents to work in our district," Hou said.

At the ceremony introducing the takeoff plan, the district awarded 200,000 yuan each to five excellent youth entrepreneurship programs in 2017 and signed a number of cooperation agreements with Peking University and other international and home enterprises.