Innovation, entrepreneurship drives 4th industrial revolution

By Guo Yiming
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, June 28, 2016
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Premier Li Keqiang at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]


China's Premier Li Keqiang on Monday reiterated the importance of mass innovation and entrepreneurship in the face of sweeping changes driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by a range of new technologies that fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds.

"We will continue to build China into an innovation-driven country by using innovative concepts, growing the new economy and fostering new growth," Li said at the opening plenary of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016, a World Economic Forum (WEF) event known as the Summer Davos, held in China's northern port city of Tianjin on June 26.

Convening over 1,700 business leaders, policymakers and experts from 90 countries, the event explores the economic, societal, cultural and ecological impact of the latest shift in human history revolving the theme of "The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Its Transformational Impact".

Recognizing the current tide of this data and intelligence-driven revolution, Li emphasized that the world's second largest economy is embracing mass innovation and entrepreneurship to seize the opportunities of the new development paradigm by nurturing an environment that encourages new ideas, tolerates mistakes, and supports new businesses.

"We are promoting technological and institutional innovation and trying to bring out the potential of everyone, even for those who are intellectually challenged that may also demonstrate genius-like talent," said the premier who added that the government has also rolled out fiscal and taxation incentives to support the transformation of innovative ideas to new businesses.

Landscape for innovation and entrepreneurs

The landscape for entrepreneurs in China has changed significantly over the past 20 years, with scores of innovative companies emerging, confirmed Lei Jun, founder and CEO of tech company Xiaomi, who is a co-chair of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016.

Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi Technology, at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]


He asserted that China's environment for starting a business has transformed greatly and the popularity of the mobile internet provides ever more opportunities for startups.

Tianjin, one of China's four municipalities, is an example. The government provides small and micro businesses with both financial guarantees and compensation funds for potential risks, thus giving the financial institutions, angel funds and venture capitalists a full role to play in supporting new industries while boosting the upgrade of traditional sectors.

Innovation and technology in the city have enhanced its growth performance, as Yan Qingmin, the municipality's vice mayor, flaunted its over 9 percent growth rate in the past year and Q1 of this year, thanks largely to new developments in industries such as aerospace.

Western business leaders in the new industry also laud China's attitude toward innovation and entrepreneurship as they venture into the world's second largest economy.

The Chinese government is actively embracing innovation and new businesses, said Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, whose company, in his words, has grown massively in a short period of time since it entered the Chinese market.

Travis Kalanick, co-founder and CEO of Uber, at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]


Despite last year's stock market crash which generated fear for global investors, Kalanick said that pessimism regarding China's economy worldwide "has never resonated in me and in our Chinese teams" as they have seen such frenetic economic activities on the ground.

Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloud Flare, was quite shocked by the sheer number of innovative breakthroughs coming out of China.

He confessed that his increasing business cooperation with Chinese firms is partly because of the Chinese pro-innovation environment.

Stronger R&D breeds new economy

While the United States remains the world's largest investor in research and development (R&D), China is picking up speed so rapidly that it is estimated to surpass the United States in this area by about 2019, data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows.

At the same time, with more efforts dedicated to technological R&D, Chinese firms are getting "smarter."

According to recent MIT Technology Review's annual listing of the 50 "smartest" companies, two Chinese firms, Baidu and Huawei, were among the top 10 of the 2016 list, with Baidu ranked second and Huawei ranked tenth.

Both companies have been developing innovative technologies and effective business models to commercialize them.

Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2016. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]


Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, recognized the growing dynamism in the country's new technologies, new industries and new business models led by mass innovation and entrepreneurship.

While new industries won't replace traditional drivers of growth in the short term, as Xu admitted, he thinks highly of its potential to champion the new industrial revolution.

Moreover, through better policy and market incentives, the fuse of traditional industries with modern information technologies will provide what it takes to sustain China's stable and dynamic growth.

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