Elites gathered to stir the world! From April 14th to 15th, the 16th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP), hosted by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) and the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, was held in Shenzhen, for the discussion about the future of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, Zhang Jianguo, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology and Director of SAFEA, Huang Danhua, Deputy Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and Wang Weizhong, Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Committee attended the conference and visited the exhibition.

During the conference, the award ceremony of the 2nd China (Shenzhen) Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition (IEIC) and the launching ceremony of the “SASAC Central SOE Innovation Base on International Cooperation and Talent Introduction” were held. 40 most influential foreign experts for the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up and the achievements of talent and intelligence introduction for the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up were announced. The results of the “Amazing China - The Most Attractive Chinese Cities by Foreigners 2017” were released, where Shanghai, Beijing, Hefei, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Guangzhou were on the list.

This year, the conference invited more than 4,000 professional organizations, training institutions, universities, technology enterprises and human resources organizations from more than 50 countries and regions to participate. More than 8,500 foreign experts and high-level overseas talents and more than 9,300 representatives from human resources, technology, and education departments and various intelligence-introduction enterprises attended the conference. A total of 59 domestic and foreign media reported on the conference, with a total of 381 reports. The number of views of new media was 1.571 million.

The planned area of the conference was 70,000 square meters, occupying Halls 1 to 5 of Shenzhen Conference and Exhibition Center, all meeting rooms on the 5th and 6th floors, and some hotel meeting rooms. There were 127 meetings and events held during the conference. According to incomplete statistics, the intelligence-introduction cooperation intentions between provinces and municipalities and professional organizations, training institutions, and overseas students were more than 3,000. Nearly 100,000 people came for visit and discussion on the first two days.

The conference covered 8 parts and 18 sections, including summit forums, exhibition and discussion, talent recruitment, project matching, IEIC, professional conferences, selection and awarding ceremonies, and guest country parallel sessions. Compared with previous years, this year’s conference increased the scale and content, with the highest degree of internationalization in history. It was more internationalized, high-end, specialized, quality, marketized, and informationalized. It made great breakthroughs and innovations in both form and content. They were mainly reflects in:  

Summit forums. The Global Talent Forum had two themes, “Gathering Global Talents and Promoting Innovative Development” and “Gathering Global Talents and Building a Strong Nation of Talents”. The speakers included He Dongfeng, Chairman of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Henry Lee, the “Artful Detective”, and Allen Blue, co-founder of LinkedIn. Besides the main forum, there were three sub-forums, namely the International Education Cooperation Forum, the Global CEO Innovation Summit, and the International Innovation Leader Summit, which were well received and praised by everyone. Under the theme of “boosting new growth in human capital services, building a new body for industrial coordinated development, and striding into the new era of human resources services in China”, the Asian-Pacific Expo and Forum on Human Resources Development and Services gathered well-known human resources companies at home and abroad such as FESCO and ManpowerGroup, well-known Internet recruitment companies such as Zhaopin.com, 51job.com, and Liepin.com. Totally there were 83 human resources service agencies participating in the exhibition.

Exhibition and discussion. The National Exhibition on Intelligence-introduction Achievements was participated by institutions from 32 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and special administrative regions. It promoted the environment and policies for attracting overseas talents of different regions. Among them, Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei formed a group; Guangdong Province, for the first time, set up the exhibition booth of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which were highlights of this conference. The Intelligence-introduction Achievements Exhibition of the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up showed the achievements of talent and intelligence introduction in the 40 years of reform and opening up. The Human Resources Industrial Park exhibition area focused on the construction achievements of “one park plus multiple branches”, and promoted human resources service brands, products, and technologies. At present, a human resources service industrial park complex of “one park plus multiple branches” has been formed in Shenzhen, with a total area of 130,000 square meters. The core park is the Human Resources Service Industrial Park of Shenzhen Talent Park and the branches are the Human Resources Service Industrial Park of Longgang, Nanshan, and Bao’an Districts. 92 well-known domestic and foreign human resources service agencies have settled in the industrial park.

Talent recruitment. This year’s conference had 8 special job fairs, including the foreign talent job fair, the “Smart Future” job fair for college graduates, the “Smart Top 100” high-end job fair for famous enterprises, the “Internet +” special job fair, the “Elite World” job fair, the job fair for public institution staff, the job fair for returned overseas talents, and the job fair for Hong Kong high-level talents. Over 1500 famous enterprises including Tencent, Huawei, and Ping An, offered 30,000 jobs to domestic and overseas high-end talents. Exhibitors received 56,797 resumes on site. 24,156 people reached an initial employment intention.

Project matching. It had five project matching sections, namely foreign expert organization and training project matching, international technology transfer and innovation cooperation, returned overseas talents and project exchange and cooperation, software talent project investment exchange, and the vocational education and high-skilled talent project exhibition booth. Among them, under the topic of international technology transfer and innovation cooperation, there were the Leaders’ Summit of International Innovative City and the International Technology Transfer and Innovation Investment Matching conference. 57 overseas guests from 16 countries were invited to attend the conference and give speeches. In Longhua District, 20 institutions conducted a two-week in-depth matching around more than 60 innovative projects in the fields of smart city, health-care, advanced manufacturing, energy conservation, and environmental protection.

IEIC international divisions. The 2nd IEIC held 9 divisions in Sydney, Toronto, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Stockholm, Boston, Silicon Valley, and London, and received the application of 1460 projects. During the conference, 135 projects came to Shenzhen for competition. The Corneat Vision project from Israel in the biological and life sciences industry won the first prize of RMB 1 million.

Professional meetings. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and SAFEA organized a symposium of experts in the “Thousand Talents Program” project, which was attended by 20 top foreign experts. SAFEA organized a series of intelligence-introduction meetings such as the project management international forum. Other professional forum and summits included the International Smarter Cities Summit, the International Summit of Industrial Parks, and the Global Education Resource Sharing Summit.

Selection and awarding. During the opening ceremony of the conference, SAFEA held the launching ceremony of the “SASAC Central SOE Innovation Base on International Cooperation and Talent Introduction” and the awarding ceremony of the final of the 2nd IEIC, and announced the results of “Amazing China - The Most Attractive Chinese Cities by Foreigners 2017”. The Organizing Committee Office also held the selection and awarding of the excellent organizations at the conference and the award of excellent display.

Guest country and parallel sessions. At this year's conference, for the first time, Germany was set as the guest country. Under the strategy of “Inviting to China and Going Global”, German expert organizations, scientific research institutions, universities, vocational training institutions, high-level talent institutions, technology enterprises, high-end experts, and students studying in Germany were invited to attend the conference. Besides, for the first time, the conference set up parallel sessions in Germany and Hong Kong. Regional parallel sessions were set up in Bao’an and Longhua Districts. On March 22nd, the German parallel session held a event in Berlin, which was well received. On April 13th, the Bao’an parallel session held the opening ceremony in Bao’an Talent Park. Under the theme of “Smart Greater Bay Area, Talents Gathering in Bao’an”, the Meeting of Elites of Hundreds of Famous Enterprises and the Implementation and Matching Meeting of Excellent Competition Projects were held. On April 14th, the Longhua parallel session held the opening ceremony at Guanlan Innovative Industrial Base of Print. It took the “First International Talent Festival” as an opportunity to hold 5 events including the “Chinese Dream, Talent Dream” international talent carnival and the fifth “Longhua Tour of 100 Overseas Doctors”. The Hong Kong parallel session will hold events at InterContinental Hong Kong on April 17th.