Authors： ChinaDaily

Chengdu is one of the favored destinations for entrepreneurship, thanks to the city's range of preferential policies. Statistics show 41,000 companies operated in the new economy sectors in Chengdu last year.

The 2019 China (Chengdu) Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, which opened on Monday, is an event to facilitate the gathering of global resources for the city, the event's organizers said.

The officials said they hope the three-day event will become a demonstration and trading platform for the city's new economy.

The fair includes the opening ceremony, an exhibition for the new economy, a transaction event for resources needed for innovation and entrepreneurship, a summit conference and a contest for innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as three special forums.

At the opening ceremony, presidents of renowned higher-learning institutes, famous economists, business leaders and investors will be invited to give keynote speeches.

There will also be an agreement-signing ceremony for investment projects and the release of the 2019 Forbes list of China's top innovative enterprises, according to organizers.

"A highlight of the fair is the exhibition displaying various applications for the new economy, including such areas as the internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and smart equipment with embedded systems," said an official of the fair's organizing committee.

He said about 300 enterprises are exhibiting their technologies, products, solutions and services in halls for various segments.

Exhibitors include such segment leaders as China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Xiaomi, JD.com and Ctrip.

The innovation and entrepreneurship resources trade fair focuses on such aspects as human resources, technologies and capital.

"The trade fair will also function as a comprehensive public platform for communications, transactions and promotions," said Zhou Hong, deputy chief of the Chengdu new economy commission, one of the organizers of the event.

He added Chengdu will release a "list of urban opportunities" at the trade fair, aiming to guide suppliers to meet the demands of the city's public facilities and services.

Chengdu previously released a list of urban opportunities in March. Consisting of 450 pieces of information in seven categories, this was the first-ever such list in China.

"The core of new economy is innovation," Zhou said, "However, one of the biggest problems of innovation is the uncertainty it has to face."

To reduce the uncertainty, Chengdu will provide innovative enterprises with more market opportunities by creating demand through public facilities and services.

Another highlight of the event is the 2019 Forbes China Innovation Summit.

According to Su Hong, deputy chief of the Chengdu expositions bureau, about 300 delegates will attend the summit.

A number of entrepreneurs representing companies on the Forbes list of innovative enterprises, both in China and overseas, will participate in the summit.

Forbes executives including Vice-Chairman of Forbes Media Mike Perlis, CEO of Forbes China Sherman Lee and Russell Flannery, Shanghai bureau chief of Forbes magazine, will be present at the summit.

Su said the summit is a platform for brainstorming among participants, by using forums, presentations and investment matchmaking.

An innovation and entrepreneurship contest will be held during the fair, aiming to attract high-profile professionals, cutting-edge technologies and high-quality projects to strengthen Chengdu's new economy.

A special job fair will take place to provide job hunters with new positions in the new economy sectors.

The three special forums, the innovation forum for Chengdu's global friendly cities, the Xinglong Lakeside Forum and the 2019 Global Unicorns Summit Forum, will also be important parts of the fair.

Representatives from Chengdu's 26 global friendly cities, including Austin in the United States, Daegu in South Korea and Hamilton in New Zealand, will gather at the event to share their experiences on developing the new economy, enhancing friendly ties and strengthening cooperation in innovation and entrepreneurship.

"Nearly half of the participating cities are national capitals," said Zhang Yanwei, deputy chief of the Chengdu foreign affairs office. These include Athens of Greece, Bangkok of Thailand, Addis Ababa of Ethiopia, London of the United Kingdom, Santiago of Chile and Kingston of Jamaica.

With participants from government, academic, business and media circles, the Xinglong Lakeside Forum will focus on such issues as macroeconomic policies, regional governance, corporate governance and media supervision.

The unicorn forum will center on such topics as AI, smart cities and startups.

In 2018, Chengdu saw four local companies - Xinchao Media, Medlinker, 1919 and Juma Logistics - growing into unicorns. Unicorns refer to startup companies with market value of $1 billion or more.

Statistics show about 30 local companies have the potential to become unicorns.

According to officials, Chengdu is one of the favored destinations for entrepreneurship, thanks to the city's range of preferential policies.

Statistics show 41,000 companies operated in the new economy sectors in Chengdu last year.