City of innovation

Shenzhen is a city born for innovation, and the key to its quick rise lies in its capability of continuous innovation. In the early years of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone,Shenzhen took the lead in making breakthroughs and disseminating new ideas by creating "firsts" for China's reform and development, such as issuing China's first stock and holding and China's first land auction. During the transitional period of development, Shenzhen once again successfully transformed itself into a pioneer of innovative development when China's economy is under the new normal phase, becoming a city of makers and a city of innovation.

Joint development of four sectors

As the first national innovative city and a state demonstration area of independent innovation, Shenzhen carries out a three-year plan and a series of polices to encourage the development of startup entrepreneurs and has formed a policy chain of the notion of reinforcing the joint development of innovation, entrepreneurship, venture capital investment and makers to build the city into a modern international   innovative city.

City of innovation

In 2016, Shenzhen's PCT applications reached 19,600, up 13.7 percent from the previous year, topping large and medium-sized Chinese cities for 13 consecutive years. The patent ownership per 10,000 people reached 80.1, topping Chinese cities. In 2016, Shenzhen's national invention patent applications were 56,326, up 40.7 percent from 2015. Among these applications 17,665 received patent licenses, up 4.2 percent from a year ago. In 2016, Shenzhen earned 16 National Science and Technology Awards, including one National Natural Science Award, three State Technological Innovation Awards, and 12 National Prizes for Progress in Science and Technology. In 2015, Shenzhen took four seats out of the 10 Chinese on Forbes' list of China-U.S. innovative figures. Shenzhen has become an innovative city of China, as well as the world. Innovation has become a synonym for Shenzhen.

City of entrepreneurship

The spirit of entrepreneurship was engraved in Shenzhen from the moment of its birth, supporting Shenzhen's rapid development and continuous innovation. As a rising city, Shenzhen has built its prosperity on the spirit of entrepreneurship, incubating a group of  famous private enterprises, including Huawei, ZTE, Tencent, BYD etc. The reform of business registration system, which started from March 1, 2013, further invigorated the market of startups, breeding a large number of enterprises of various sizes. In the same year, Shenzhen's commercial subjects exceeded 1 million, which means that there was one commercial subject among every 13 citizens and one enterprise for every 26 citizens. Shenzhen lives up to its reputation as a city of entrepreneurship.

City of makers

In recent years, the number of makers in Shenzhen has been growing drastically. Many institutions have gained much fame and influence both domestically and overseas, including Chaihuo Maker Space, Makeblock and Seeed Studio. In 2016, there were 81 new startup spaces, 32 startup service platforms and 12 incubators. The city has 66 service platforms for entrepreneurs and 237 incubators. More than 7,000 large and medium-sized scientific research instruments were offered for public use. The Shenzhen Bay Entrepreneurship Plaza has become a signature place. Nanshan District and China Merchants Group were selected as national mass   entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration bases and Shenzhen became a national small and microbusiness innovation and entrepreneurship emonstration base. The China (Shenzhen) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was launched in 2009. Since then over 10,000 projects joined the competition. Each year the competition attracts about 500 million yuan of investment. In 2016, 169 events were held during the National Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week Shenzhen main venue and Shenzhen International Maker Week, influencing 670,000 people and receiving 550,000 visitors.