Chongqing - The 2020 Sichuan-Chongqing-Hong Kong-Macao Youth Development Forum on Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SCCQHKOMA 2020) was successfully held in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area on Dec. 14, which aimed to establish a multilateral platform to boost the coordinated youth development in the four provincial-level regions.

SCCQHKMA 2020 was held in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area. Courtesy of Chongqing Municipal Foreign Affairs Office

The forum had separate sub-venues in Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and Macao Special Administrative Region, and was held via both online and offline formats.

To better promote the master plan of building "Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle" and the various preferential policies for youth entrepreneurs and innovators in the four regions, the organizing committee invited government officials, experts, and renowned industry leaders to share their startup stories and development experiences.

"Hosting such an event in and of itself shows the joined commitment of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government and the Sichuan Provincial People's Government to promoting youth entrepreneurship and innovation in the four regions," said Wu Wei, communication director under the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

For years, Chongqing and Sichuan have been actively engaged in exploring more exchange and cooperation opportunities with Hong Kong and Macao in both economic and cultural areas, according to Wu. "This forum will push the existing bilateral cooperations to a much deeper and more extensive level."

Chen Wei, the co-founder of a local financial technology company called Social Credits, stressed the necessity to promote the spatial and geographical interconnection and the integration of talents and resources.

According to Chen, the abundant universities and colleges in Chongqing, Sichuan, Hong Kong, and Macao are ideal for creating a new regional coordination ecosystem. He hoped to see more talent-based policies promulgated and more frequent talent flows among the four regions in the future.

In recent years, Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area has been pooling preferential policies and resources for the coordinated development in the four regions. The Chongqing-Hong Kong-Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Base, set up in Liangjiang New Area MK Space on May 13, 2019, has established an exchange platform for talent and resource flows among the three regions.

Currently, Liangjiang New Area boasts 310 city-level and above R&D centers, nearly 2,000 technology enterprises, over 500 Hi-Tech enterprises. What's more, the 40 entrepreneurship and innovation incubators here have also contracted a total of 600 startup projects, with youth entrepreneurs accounting for more than 70% of the total.