Energy Forum 19 - Save to Grow: Energy Conservation and Sustainable Energy Policy in Hong Kong

In an attempt to expand the dialogue to also cover energy conservation and demand side management measures, and to facilitate an informed discussion on energy efficiency in various sectors in Hong Kong, Civic Exchange has co-organized a public forum with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Hong Kong. Dr. Walter Steinmann, Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, shared with the audience the Swiss experience and best practices in energy conservation and sustainable energy policy. A distinguished panel shed lights on current energy efficiency practices in Hong Kong and the prospect of upping their effort in the foreseeable future.

The participants for the panel discussion were

1. Mrs Irene Cheng, Housing Department, HKSAR Government
2. Mr Hahn Chu, Independent commentator on environmental issues
3. Mr Arthur Lui, Schneider Electric
4. Dr Walter Steinmann, Swiss Federal Office of Energy and State Secretary for Energy

The first part of the forum covered an 30 minutes introduction of Dr. Walter Steinmann to the Swiss Energy Policy and Energy Conservation including the Energy Strategy 2050. The main raising questions after the presentation referred to the perfect energy mix for Hong Kong, especially suggestions on how Hong Kong could save energy the best way and Switzerland’s origin of electricity, its ownership and price.

A Panel discussion was launched in the second part. Each participant had 10 minutes to introduce him- or herself and the company’s energy strategies to the audience. Mrs. Irene Cheng touched the measures the housing department is taking in terms of energy saving. Her main points covered 1) Passive Design 2) Reducing Consumption of Lighting Systems 3) Reducing Consumption of Lift Installations and 4) Reducing Consumption of Water Pump Installations as well as raising public awareness. All the innovations are mainly realized in new built buildings rather than in the already existing ones. Mr. Arthur Li introduced the company Schneider Electric with its Smart City project. The project works in the fields of as Smart Energy, Smart Mobility, Smart Water, Smart Public Services and Smart Buildings. Mr. Han Chu focused on the waste of energy that Hong Kong releases every day. He used photos from the street of different places to demonstrate how lightning is misplaced and how bright banners not only steal electricity but also peoples live quality.

During the following discussion questions and views from varying sides of the field emerged. They covered matters of the rebound effect of energy saving measures in Switzerland and Hong Kong, catching the consumer’s morality, the energy taxing and pricing systems as well as the magnitude of energy saving mechanisms in Hong Kong.

With over 100 people attending the forum from companies, Universities or out of self-interest, the interest was very high. Nevertheless there was no one from the government in the audience but Civic Exchange will submit a report of the discussion.

Lower-Cost Solar Power, the new EPFL record!

Michael Grätzel laboratory at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland, built a photovoltaic device that uses sunlight to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with 12.3 percent efficiency using cheap and earth-abundant materials called perovskites.

Perovskite are compounds that can be obtained in the laboratory from various common chemical constituents such as those used in normal car batteries. The device made of perovskites combined with other inexpensive catalysts convert sun's energy into hydrogen with a conversion efficiency of 12.3% and this percentage will soon be higher.

The abundance of perovskites is an advantage that eliminates the need for rare-earth expensive metals in the production of usable hydrogen fuel, making the production of solar cells more affordable.

The conversion from sun to hydrogen gas solves the problem of the storage of solar power, because this gas can easily be store in bottles and can be used to generate electricity on demand. 

The research is ongoing and it will take years to get all the data on indoor and outdoor stability of perovskite cells but it could be great to produce cheap clean fuel to power cars in the future!

More info: http://lpi.epfl.ch/page-51005.html

- Contributed by Liliane Gonzalez, Academic Intern swissnex China

A revolutionary advance in the capture of CO2

Scientist from EPFL in collaboration with China University of Petroleum, University of California and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, developed a revolutionary slurry-based process to capture carbon.

Currently, there are 2 approaches to carbon capture: the first one liquid based and the second one solid based. The liquid approach uses amine solutions that absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, in order to separate the carbon from the liquid, this one is boiled, this step is highly energy consuming and is named regeneration. 

The solid material approach uses “metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs). MOF are fine powders able to collect the CO2 due to the nanosize pores on their surface. This low cost approach is difficult to transport and are highly engineering demanding.

The combination of liquids and carbon-capturing solid into slurry is revolutionary. The slurry is made of a MOF named ZIP-8 in suspension in a mix of glycol 2 methylimidazole. ZIP-8 pores are too small for glycol’s molecules, but big enough to capture CO2 molecules. The combination of the low cost and energy efficiency of solid nanoporuous with the simple liquid-based separation process successfully address the 2 main challenges in the carbon capture.

Future plan of these researches is to test this new slurry in the field, to collect CO2 molecules from flue gas in order to reduce global carbon emission.

- Contributed by Liliane Gonzalez, Academic Intern swissnex China

Venture leaders Program in Beijing

First team picture since landing on top of Beijing!

Venture leaders China 2014 is a start-up business development program initiated and operated by venture lab and supported by several Swiss partners. swissnex China was proud to be the local partner in Shanghai and Beijing. This highly competitive program has been successfully implemented in Boston for more than 10 years and is now making its first entry into the Chinese market this year. The carefully selected 10 startups or “venture leaders” typically have 3-5 years of successful experience in Switzerland and are now looking to expand their presence to China in the field of ICT, consumer products (fashion & luxury industry) and energy efficiency/clean tech. They embarked on a 10 day “discover-build-execute” mission to Beijing and Shanghai between 3-13 of September 2014, attending lectures of various topics and pitching many times in front of fellow Chinese startups.

The very intensive program started as soon as the Venture leaders jumped off the plane. At Times Art Museum, a gallery overlooking the CBD area of Beijing,  Mr. Alain Graf, Head of the Swiss Business Hub China and Mr. Denis F. Berger briefed on the status-quo of Swiss SMEs in China and the general IP information in China.

Of course the Beijing experience is NOT complete without a proper treat of the famous Beijing Duck, and that’s how the Venture leaders spent their first evening in China – taking out cameras and filming the Duck-cutting show. 

Kick-off at Times Art Museum over sandwiches

Beijing Duck Dinner

On September 4, the venture leaders program started very early but was still caught in a terrible traffic jam, which is also part of the typical Beijing morning experience.  But luckily, everybody still made it to Tuspark, the Tsinghua University Science Park. Benefiting from its proximity to the top universities in China, Tuspark has one of the most vibrant and dynamic innovation community in Beijing.

Tuspark, the Tsinghua University Science Park

The morning session started with welcome and presentation from Mr. LIN Jian, Director of the Tuspark Incubator. The venture leaders were then able to benefit from two exciting presentations by Mr. Cyrill Eltschinger, Strategic Advisor and former CEO of Softtek China who shared his experience of being an expat entrepreneur in China, and Mr. WANG Jianbao, ex-entrepreneur and current researcher at the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Study, Peking University who explained the culture elements in doing business in China. 

During lunch, the venture leaders got to exchange with fellow Chinese entrepreneurs based in Tuspark. The group then split  for individual business development meetings.

In the evening, everybody rejoined at Tech Temple, Beijing’s largest shared working space and incubator for an exciting evening of round table discussion. About 100 interested guests from Chinese startup scene came and joined the discussion and networking on topics of common concern – from IPR to identifying partners, from branding to marketing.

Round Table where ideas fly

Sino-Swiss Entrepreneurs’ Discussion @Tech Temple

The Friday program started even earlier than Thursday to avoid the traffic chaos. The venture leaders arrived at ZGC park, the largest and best science park in China. According to statistics, the total revenue of ZGC park accounts for 20% of Beijing’s entire GDP in 2013 (USD 600 billion, very close to Switzerland’s 2013 GDP).

The venture leaders were hosted on Inno-Way, a pedestrian with very strong startup spirit and a lot of startup cafe, incubators, startup coaching service providers, angel investors and technology media.

The Friday morning session started on time at Binggo cafe, a meeting place for startup entrepreneurs. The deputy director of ZGC park Mr. ZENG Xiaodong was more than happy to greet everybody and welcome everybody to consider ZGC as an entry point to China.

Friday morning was all about market entry. Mr. Nicolas MUSY, founder and CEO of China Integrated shared his 20 years of insight in helping Swiss SMEs enter China. Mr. PAN Guozhang, founder and CEO of Jetbay presented his insight on market opportunities for mobile internet companies in China.

Execution Workshop@Yuanfenflow

Meet the expert

The real highlight in Beijing came in the evening at the Ambassador’s Residence, where some 150 VIP guests from the startup scene gathered to meet with the Venture leaders. Quite a number of investors, incubators, science parks, officials, technology media and Swiss MNCs showed up with strong interests in the Swiss innovation and startup landscape.  H.E. Jean-Jacques de Dardel, Ambassador of Switzerland to China hosted the event and the venture leaders pitched in front of this incredible crowd of guests.

Pitching at the Residence of Ambassador

H.E. Jean-Jacques de Dardel, Ambassador of Switzerland to China addressed the audience

After three very intensive working days, weekends are meant to be fun. Since it is impossible to walk away from Beijing without seeing the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, that’s exactly where the venture leaders were at on September 6th, before flying off to Shanghai for the next crazy week of exploring China. 

swissnex China contributes to the Swiss Innovation Series in Turkey, 17 September

Prof. Dr. Claudio Boer (second from the right)

Invited by the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Turkey,  Senior Advisor of swissnex China & Vice President of SUPSI, Prof. Dr. Claudio Boer attended the Swiss Innovation Series on 17th September 2014. He delivered a highly informative speech on the topic "Sustainable Innovation and Innovation for Sustainability", in which he took the shoe industry and watch industry as examples to explain the importance of shifting the production process from mass production to mass customization. To know more about his presentation, please contact Prof. Boer directly via claudio.boer@swissnexchina.org 

A possible model for Swiss S&T cooperation? - Austria-China Roundtable on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 23 September

For the 2nd time Advantage Austria organized a conference on Nano-science and Nano-technology in Shanghai, where Austrian and Chinese experts in these fields could meet at the Shanghai University and exchange about their projects. With more than 120 specialists attending the event, there was a lot of potential for possible future cooperation.

The day started  with the signature of a collaboration agreement and the release of a joint call for Chinese-Austrian projects. During the rest of the day 20 nano tech professionals had each 10 minutes to describe the research projects of their institutes or companies to the audience in the main conference room. The projects presented were related to different fields and varied from life science and new materials to innovative use of nanotechnologies in physics. The high quality of the speakers and their presentations contributed to a fruitful and informative experience for the participants. 

Besides the main conference, there were additional rooms reserved for B2B meetings, offering a platform to already discuss possible collaborations between Austrian and Chinese start-ups, companies and research institutions.

This Austrian-Chinese roundtable represented an interesting possible model to bring also Swiss and Chinese stakeholders together in order to enhance future science and technology cooperation.

- contributed by Liliane Gonzalez and Isabel Bolliger

Shanghai BioClouds : “Senior Living in China - The new Challenge”, 17 September

Last Shanghai BioClouds took place at swissnex China the 17th of September 2014. Over 30 people from different countries attended the event; there were consulate representatives and health care companies.

Pascal Mamier, CEO of swissnex China and Vice Consul welcomed the participants and talk about swissnex China, then Simon Pico gave a short introduction about Shanghai BioClouds and invited us to the next SEBP event that will take place in May 2015. 

Shu Li

Brome Hampton Cole

Shu Li, executive director at Starcastle Senior Living Company, showed us a movie to introduce her company and give a passionate talk about what offers a Chinese senior living community and the challenges she had to face within her company. 

Brome Hampton Cole, president of Hampton Hoerter Healthcare, gave us an interesting insight of the senior living possibilities in China and exchange with us live experience he encounter. He also offered the audience some copies of his latest book “Enter the Ageing Dragon” edited in China.

－ Contributed by Liliane Gonzalez, swissnex China

Lift China – Make Innovation Happen

On September 10th 2014, swissnex China had the pleasure to co-organize the first LIFT conference in China. The Lift conferences, for those of you who don’t already know about it, have welcomed more than 15’000 participants from over 40 countries since 2006. These conferences explore the business and social implications of technological innovation. They allow explorers, makers, builders and observers to come together during one day and share their creative and innovative ideas through different workshop, master classes and roundtables.

For their first leap in China, Lift chose the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai and its bustling innovation sector. The selected location to host it was the Power Station of Art, a popular space among the Shanghainese community. This museum/exhibition center is situated on the banks of the Huangpu River in a former electric power station that has been remodeled into an art center. 

The conference was scheduled to open at 9:30am, although some of our great visitors started arriving as early as 9:00am, eager to not miss one second of the amazing day that was about to unfold in front of them. The kick-off of the conference was given around 10:00am by the President of Lift Events, Abir Oreibi, who gave more insights to the audience about the mission of Lift, and by Pascal Marmier, CEO of swissnex China, who presented the organization. The visitors then had the pleasure to listen to two guest speakers. First, Thomas Landrai, co-founder of the world largest Do-it-yourself biology lab, called “La Paillasse”, followed on the by David Li, the founder of XinCheJian, China’s first hacker space. Two great speeches, that both put the focus on the idea that there is no need to be an expert in an area to challenge the status quo and create new innovative products or processes.

The rest of the day was two-fold. First, an interactive design exhibition in partnership with HEAD Geneva, which was open all day long for the visitors to enjoy. It regrouped works of young talents from China and Switzerland that all used the interactive potential of mobile computing and augmented reality interface. Among other very creative projects , “Traces”, a table that changed color when in contact with heat, by Liu Yi, and “Binary world”, a physical book made interactive by the use of a smartphone, by Baptiste Milési.

The second fold of the conference was a series of Workshops and Master classes given all along the day in different part of the Power Station of Art. Overall, more than 15 speakers shared their ideas and engaged with their fellow lifters. The topics were varied and interesting and received a very good response from the audience. Among them, a round table about “Chinese Startup Scene; Ingredients for Success”, opened by a presentation by David Ben Kay, a pioneer in China and the founder of Yuanfen Flow, on the entrepreneur’s mindset. It was followed by an open discussion between him, entrepreneurs, angel investors and the audience on the current state of the startup scene in China and their thoughts on its future. A quite insightful discussion for anyone interested in China or entrepreneurship, that led to the conclusion that the startup sector is still very young here and full of space for future ventures. Thomas Landrai from “La Paillasse” gave a very interesting workshop on “Biohacking to Change the World” where the audience was asked to brainstorm about health, environment, energy and architecture. They were then separated in groups to further create crazy stories based on three keywords, for example genetic sequencing, wave and dream. Throughout the day, workshops included topics such as “Open Data for Business”, “Green Energy in Urban Spaced” and “Designing Smart Cities in Asia”, among many others.

To conclude this great day, a Global Pitchfest was jointly organized by swissnex China and VentureLab.  The contestants were composed by a selection of Chinese entrepreneurs and by the Venture Leaders, a group of 10 selected Swiss entrepreneurs that traveled to Beijing and Shanghai for 10 days in order to better analyze the Chinese market and plan effective development strategies. Each team was asked to pitch their company for 1 minute to convince the audience, who was in charge of voting for their favorite startups by test messages. In the second round, the 4 startups who received the most votes in the first round pitched again, to see who would be declared the final winner. The night ended with dinner and networking on the rooftop of Power Station of Art.

Overall the day was a great success. The 450+ visitors all took home with them new ideas, new contacts and greater knowledge about fascinating topics. The day was filled with knowledge, innovation, creativity and interactions, and we surely hope to renew the experience next year again!

Google-Novartis future lenses monitoring glucose levels

A few days ago Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, and Google begun a partnership to develop contact lenses that monitor glucose levels in tears. The Google-Novartis prototype lenses contain a device that measures glucose in tears and a wireless antenna transmits the measurements to an external device. This way, they can help diabetics track their own blood glucose levels and hope to commercialize it before 2019.

Novartis and Google are also looking forward to develop other “smart lenses” that can for example detect cancer, thanks to some well-known biomarkers, or use contact lenses to deliver drugs continuously in a lower level than actually deliver.

There is still a long way to go before we see the commercialization of glucose-monitoring lenses, night vision lenses, cancer-detecting lenses or drug-delivering lenses, which need flexible and thin materials to be user-friendly and to go through all regulatory approvals to prove these lenses are effective and safe.

- Contributed by Liliane Gonzalez – Scientific collaborator intern for swissnex China

Lift Coming to China

Lift is organizing the first Lift China in Shanghai in partnership with swissnex China. Lift China will be the place for makers, artists, start-ups and pioneers alike to meet and make fruitful connections with the international community.

In 2014, Lift is looking east again, to the fantastic rise of the Shenzhen economy and the growing innovative power of Shanghai. From “made in China” to “made with China”, engineers, entrepreneurs and designers are creating a new marketplace where western start-ups and eastern manufacturers join forces to reinvent the technological daily life.

Lift China will offer inspirational, actionable and interactive experiences through talks, workshops, matchmaking initiatives and exhibitions, as well as a Venture Leaders session for the best start-ups to pitch their innovative ideas.

In addition, in collaboration with the think tank Hacked Matter, Lift China will organize a discovery trip for Swiss and European makers to meet the great manufacturers of Shanghai and Shenzhen from Sept 11th-13th.

For more information, please go to http://liftconference.com/lift-china-14

Business Model Innovation by Chinese Companies

Since few years, Chinese companies are using more and more the information technologies (IT) into their business to innovate and differentiate themselves. Indeed, with a high level of customer, these technologies and particularly the web allow companies to reach more and more people while reducing their cost. In China, we can notice that companies mostly innovate by using the Big Data or creating a web platform. Yue’Bao and Xiaomi are two perfect examples to illustrate that. Yue’Bao is using Big Data to innovate while Xiaomi is using an online platform as its main point of sale. 

Xiaomi announced a revenue of $2.16B for the first half of 2013, a proof that innovation drives to success. This company built its business model around the following value proposition: providing an efficient smartphone with a low price. This was really an innovation into the smartphone world. This value proposition is addressed directly to the Chinese global market and especially to people with low revenues. But the power of Xiaomi can be found in its CEO, Lei Jun, who built a strong brand awareness into the Chinese market. Like Apple, people buy the Xiaomi products mostly for the brand. Moreover, Xiaomi smartphones are selling only online in order to reduce the costs. In order to take advantage of their brand awareness, Xiaomi decided to also sale peripheral products. These products turn out to be a real success according to the sales. The last but not least interesting aspect in the business model of Xiaomi is that all the products are improved through the co-creation concept. It means that the customers help Xiaomi to draw the future products. Thus, the relationship between the company and its customers is strengthening. This is increasing their loyalty for the brand.

Business model canvas of Xiaomi

Unlike Xiaomi, Yue’Bao is taking advantage through Big Data. Indeed, Yue’Bao is a money-market fund using Alibaba Big Data to predict the customer behavior/creditworthiness. This leads to one of the most important force of Yue’Bao business model: a high return on investment compared to traditional banking. This service is addressed to small Chinese investors since it allows the investment starting from 1 RMB. That is why it is really easy to use and works via an app available on most of smartphones. In addition, people are free to transfer and withdraw the money at any time, without being penalized. By adapting the money-market fund service to lower and middle Chinese class, Yue’Bao realized a huge success. Indeed, Yue’Bao fund size reached 400 billion yuan in February 2014.

These two examples showed us how innovation through new technologies can affect positively your business. It can help to boost your business and take new opportunities. Nevertheless, innovation can sometimes have a huge impact on your business model. Thus, besides innovation you also need to consider the factor adaptation.

Business model Canvas of Yu'Ebao

swissnex contributes to the Sino-Swiss Economic Forum 2014 in Beijing

On 1 July 2014 the Free Trade Agreement between Switzerland and China was inaugurated by the Swiss State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Mrs. Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, at the Sino-Swiss Economic Forum in Beijing. swissnex China was a partner at the forum and organized two panel discussions:

Can the FTA boost collaborative innovation?

Panelists:

- Ms. Tina Tao, COO and Partner, Innovationworks
- Mr. Olivier Glauser, Co-Founder and CFO, Shankai Sports International
- Prof. Ursula Backes-Gellner, Professor for Business and Personnel Economics, University of Zurich

Moderator: Mr. Pascal Marmier, CEO, swissnex China

With China’s rapidly developing ecosystem, it is expected that more innovation will be coming out of China in the near future. In this sense, the FTA has potential to serve as a catalyst to bring Chinese and Swiss innovators together. This panel shed some light on the innovation landscapes of the two countries and explored possibilities to bring Chinese and Swiss innovators together.

In order to kick off collaborative innovation between China and Switzerland, the panelists agree that free exchange of any kind is crucial: exchange of students; academic exchange; exchange of entrepreneurs; trade; Chinese companies using Switzerland as a hub to access Europe; Swiss companies taking responsibility in education in China. 

Fostering innovation through IPR?

Panelists:

- Prof. Chuntian LIU, Dean Intellectual Property Academy, Renmin University of China
- Prof. Florent THOUVENIN, Professor at the Law Institute, University of Zurich
- Mr. Peng LIN, Co-founder and CEO of Zhigu Ruituo Technology Services
- Mr. Daniel LUTZ, Managing Director of Nestle Food & Beverage, Greater China

Moderator: Mr. David Kay, Founder of Yuanfenflow Consulting Firm

The FTA between China and Switzerland has a chapter on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This panel explored the impacts of this chapter, its potential for fostering innovation, and the role of IPR for innovation in general.

The panelists agree with Professor LIU that the notion of indigenous innovation in China is crucial as China is currently at the critical moment of shifting growth patterns. They are confident that given more time, IPR protection in China will be better developed with more sustainability. The panel also discussed the issue that IPR can be overprotected and hamper innovation – they entered a lively discussion with the audience on this issue.

香港/Hong Kong — the Asian tech hub?

Luca Delacretaz, the swissnex scout in Hongkong

What comes to your mind when you first think of Hong Kong? Dim sum? Dragon boats? Flashy Lights? Busy financial centre? What about entrepreneurship? Although few people would have associated Hong Kong with the tech industry a few years ago, the recent boost in the local startup scene and innovation parks has drastically changed the game, making Hong Kong an important player with formidable potential for the upcoming years. But before I introduce you to one of the world’s most vibrant and multifaceted cities and its rapidly growing tech scene, let me first tell you a bit about myself.

First off, I am neither an engineer nor an entrepreneur — I am a theoretical physicist. But don’t run away! My boss at swissnex won’t allow me to write equations, so you are safe.

Lunar New Year at Wong Tai Sin temple

I first discovered Hong Kong a few years ago during an exchange year abroad from the Swiss Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). It didn’t take long for me to fall for the city, and once my exchange was done, I couldn’t wait for the next chance to return. That opportunity came this Spring, between the end of my Masters in Columbia University and the start of my PhD at Stanford. After reconnecting with the research groups at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), I learned that a new Particle Theory Group had been formed, led by Henry Tye, a renowned cosmologist from Cornell University. I now have the privilege of working in this group, collaborating with the local postdocs and PhDs, and enjoying the view on Clear Water Bay for coffee breaks.

Now how is all this connected to entrepreneurship? During my stay, I wanted to discover more of what Hong Kong had to offer, and decided to work part-time for swissnex as their official scout in the area. So when I am not busy developing mathematical tools to describe neutron stars and black holes, I visit incubators and co-working spaces, interview young and ambitious or experienced and insightful entrepreneurs, and take part in pitching nights or other startup events.

The Hive, one of the many co-working spaces of Hong Kong

In a nutshell, my job is to determine whether (and how) Switzerland should strengthen ties with Hong Kong in the Research and Development sectors, both academic and entrepreneurial. In particular, should budding Swiss startups start looking towards Hong Kong as a potential launching platform? I believe the answer is YES.

Hong Kong has long been a strategic location to set up small businesses. Visas are easy to come by, taxes are low for SMEs, and the city offers access to the enormous Chinese market, without the legal fuss of starting a business directly in the mainland. There is virtually no language barrier, and making connections is so easy it is practically inevitable.  However, Hong Kong has traditionally not had a very entrepreneurial spirit. The widespread money-driven mindset has lead most fresh graduates to choose finance over science, or large and well-known companies over young startups.

“Budding Swiss startups should start looking towards Hong Kong as

a potential launching platform”

That being said, public opinion is changing and Hong Kong now has the necessary infrastructure to become Asia’s tech hub. Less than 4 years after the launch of HK’s first co-working space, the city now has over 20 freelancer-friendly locations (5 of which opened in the last 2 months), making the high rent problem virtually obsolete. It has become difficult to decide which of the numerous startup-related events to attend, these ranging from startup weekends and pitching nights at CoCoon, to startup grind events hosted by the Hive and other co-working spaces. The change in public opinion can also be felt in universities, where entrepreneurship is now considered a viable career path (see e.g. HKUST Entrepreneurship Center). On the R&D side, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC), Cyberport and the Hong Kong Design Centre have defined sectors where Hong Kong could potentially become the center of excellence in Asia over the next few years. For instance, the HKSTPC has formed 5 technology clusters (which match very well Switzerland’s areas of expertise!) and is looking for additional research groups to join. The Hong Kong government has also shown keen interest in intensifying development in innovation by increasing support from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), and proposing to “set up an Innovation and Technology Bureau as a centralized body to co-ordinate and promote innovation and technology policy” (source: gov.hk).

Hong Kong Science & Technology Park

An entrepreneur who had recently expanded his business to Hong Kong once told me: “In my state in the US, I had 300 competitors for a market of 1M people. Here in Hong Kong, I have China as a market, and 10 competitors”. Whether you are a young engineer with a new product or an experienced entrepreneur wishing to expand your SME, now is the time to pack up your ideas and head over to Hong Kong to catch the wave before it leaves!

Start-Up Wuhan at swissnex China, 13 May

On 13 May, swissnex China hosted a group of young innovators from Wuhan - winners of the first Start-up Wuhan Social Innovation Week and the team of Ban-Ma.com, the key organization behind the whole project.

Ban-Ma Social Innovation Week

Start-up Wuhan tells a story about a group of ambitious young people. Engaged in different professions, they have gathered in Wuhan for the same dream that they would transform this city by their Innovation + Action. The series project 2014 is collaborated by Ban-Ma.com and China University of Geoscience (Wuhan). The one-month Social Innovation Competition has engaged hundreds of students and various international experts from design, social innovation and commercial fields.

Story Sharing at swissnex China

After the intensive workshops and brainstorming, the 2 winners of the competition stand out from the 8 groups and won the chance to come to Shanghai for one week study tour, and swissnex China was their first station in the trip.

The afternoon was composed of the speech addressed by Mr. Lu Rui, the chief curator of the project and the presentations given by the two groups, one is named “Re-old is Good” and the other –“Da Vinci”.  Through the presentations, Re-old is Good showed their strong interest on the traditional handcrafts and they’re striving to make a platform/brand to promote the culture of Chinese traditional handcrafts, and to bridge the pioneering designers with the traditional craftsmen. Completely different from the first group, “Da Vinci” had a special focus on entrepreneurship and social networking sites. They are trying to build a networking site for university students to find their project partners effectively.

Still A Long Way to Go

The voice of the young was impressive indeed, however being an entrepreneur and an innovator is never an easy job. During the discussion session, the team of swissnex China had exchanged the ideas and thoughts with the students regarding project concept, business model and marketing strategies etc., which also encouraged them to further develop their projects.

Besides, the Ban-Ma Social Innovation Week is also planning for the next edition in fall, which will be not only focusing on the campus but more open to the public.

Young Swiss in China – Event on Career Opportunities, 30 April

After the last event, where the participants learned to prepare traditional Chinese dishes, this event was more focused on starting or continuing a career and work life here in Shanghai.

Young Swiss in China, supported by swissnex China, invited Mr. Nicolas Milonas and Mr. Florian Fêche, two headhunters with a long time experience, to give the invited guest a smart overview of opportunities in China for young professionals. If already a lot of foreigners are established in Shanghai they said, the second tiers cities of China are really attractive, and there is still a lot to accomplish in those cities. China represents a career booster for young professionals; they have access to a management position at least two times faster than in Europe.

Audience at the event

Mr. Nicolas Milonas and Mr. Florian Fêche

The guest present had been taught about the differences between the job market in Europe and in China, how to avoid mistakes, and how to use LinkedIn as a tool to increase chances to find the job one wants. Many of the young professionals present took home some valuable advice.

If you are interested in joining the association and in participating events, please contact Augustin Romaneschi, email youngswissinchina@gmail.com 

- Contributed by Augustin Romaneschi, President at Young Swiss in China

The World Tourism Forum Luzern First “Talent Boost” in China, 22 April

The World Tourism Forum Luzern held its first “Talent Boost” event in China. As one of the most active forum in the tourism industry, the Forum continues to expand its international network with leading universities in the field. In China, WTFL will collaborate with ECNU (East China Normal University), one of the leading universities in hospitality and tourism.

The program at ECNU featured keynotes from industry leaders such as Prof. Martin Barth, President World Tourism Forum Lucerne and Michael Henssler, President  Kempinski Hotel S.A. – China, as well as a panel discussion moderated by Pascal Marmier. The panel focused on the talent shortage in the industry and some of the initiatives under way to solve it.

The first “Talent Boost” event in Shanghai aimed on raising awareness of the importance of young talents in the industry. In order to find, manage and foster young talents, it is of great importance to create an attractive environment for the “Future Generation” in the industry. The cooperation between industry and academia, and institutions will contribute to create this important platform, in order to help facilitate connecting the young talents to the key players of the industry.

In both countries, hospitality has a very long tradition, but over the past years, the “supply of talents” has become more difficult. By following trends, being innovative and by focusing on a praxis-oriented training and a solid education program, and by offering the possibility of internships, the search for the right talent could be facilitated and improved. With the partnership between WTFL and ECNU (East China Normal University), and the “Talent Boost” event, an important commitment has been set. 

The next forum will be held in April 23 – 24, 2015 in Lucerne, Switzerland, and the first forum in China is planned to take place in 2016. Hopefully with many young talents coming from all over the world, who will share their passion for tourism and hospitality, and who are enthusiastic to share, and strive to gain experience in the industry in order to play a key role in the future. 

Read more information here:

World Tourism Forum Lucerne

press release in English

press release in Chinese

Building bridges between Schaffhausen and China, 10 April

About 70 friends of Switzerland visited a special networking event at the swissnex China office on April 10th. It was focused on the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen and its connections to China, organized in close collaboration with the Swiss Consulate General. The Canton of Schaffhausen is the most northern region of Switzerland and is famous for its wine culture, a historic old town and for the impressive Rhine Falls, Europe’s largest waterfall. Furthermore it is home to several world leading companies and an attractive location due to its proximity to the Zurich Airport. Schaffhausen is working on strengthening its position globally to attract businesses and tourists.

The idea for such an evening came from the two interns Lea Im Obersteg and Niklaus Waldvogel, both originating from Schaffhausen and eager to present their region and its qualities.

The first speaker, Mr. Marco Rhyner, acts as Chief Representative China of the Investment Promotion Office of the Canton Schaffhausen. His presentation focused on the industrial development and environmental protection efforts, as well as key attractions of the region.

The second speaker, Mr. Mujia Zhang of the Schaffhausen based Georg Fischer Company, has over 20 years of working experience in Switzerland and is currently the head of GF’s Automotive Business Unit in Suzhou, China. He told the participants the story of his company, being one of Schaffhausen’s most successful and now operating on a global scale.

After those inspiring talks, the guests enjoyed a stimulated networking part with a rich finger food buffet with Swiss specialties and as highlight, they had the possibility to degust some fantastic wine from the famous Schaffhausen Blauburgunderland region. The evening was concluded by a lucky draw, with various Schaffhausen related prices.

Vision Day - To Plant the Seeds for Social Innovation

Environmental sustainability, aging population, developing health care…lots of social dilemma forced China to tackle with urgent needs. Can we find new ways to solve them?

On Dec. 10 2013, the first creative lab for social innovation at Gongyi Xintiandi, sponsored by swissnex China, attracted more than 80 participants. Including one day group discussion and half day planning meeting, the workshop inspired entrepreneurs, NGOs, social entrepreneurs and government as well to come out impactful and initiative way dealing complex issues.

The aim of this Vision Day is to co-design concrete working areas of the initiative, addressing diverse questions like how competences skills are needed, what policy framework should like, how social enterprises and NGOs engage to implement project. 12 groups are divided to bring about social innovation and shared values together.

In the first day morning, two keynote speeches brought inspiration to the discussion. Gu Yuan, the founder and director of AHA Center in Shanghai, which offers education supports to organizations in the field of social innovation. In his speech, “four blind spots“ were highlighted and each of them being a cause for slow evolution in Chinese corporate social innovation:

• Lack of empathy
• Underestimation of local wisdom
• Underutilization of social capital
• Lack of patience

Another keynote speaker, Chandran Nair, the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent think tank focusing on an Asian worldview. In his talk, he encouraged the Asian countries to find their own ideas of how to deal with today’s social instabilities and problems instead of copying from western countries. He believes that strong rules in the cultural, political and social environment are needed, and they have to be set by the state governments and not by private companies.

Executive Director of swissnex China, Pascal Marmier delivered his points of view according to his US experience. He strongly support the idea to bring people from divided sections to the table and work together to fix problems concerning the society, the time and the human beings.

In the afternoon, each group carried out their own projects with different focuses and interesting ideas were presented to everybody: one group planned to set a product chain based on an NGO helping the autism children discover their talents on drawing, and another group named their project as “Four seasons happiness ” to help with social learning by all kinds of community activities.

In the following day, participants who wished to take a lead and co-design the initiative further went together as a round table. We can see that a collaborative social innovation community is forming and we are now waiting to see more programs to follow.

Economic Mission to Xuzhou, 2-3 December 2013

Xuzhou – not Suzhou, is the new destination of the economic mission this year organized by the Swiss General Consulate and SwissCham Shanghai. About 15 Swiss companies from various industries joined this mission. Examples of Swiss companies are Oerlikon, Swiss Re, Panalpina, Swissnex China, etc. 

Xuzhou government warmly welcomed the Swiss Delegation. The delegation had meeting with the Party Secretary of Xuzhou, Mr. CAO Xinping and many other government officials. Mr. Cao introduced the history of Xuzhou city and the current development of the city. He stressed the focuses of Xuzhou’s development strategies: further development and renovation of the city infrastructure, improve ecological environment by increasing the forest coverage. Mr. Cao expressed the will to gain more attention from the Swiss industry and to establish more collaboration between Xuzhou’s local enterprises and the Swiss companies. In name of the whole delegation, Mr. Schellenberg extended the deepest thanks to the government support for this mission. He recalled the first visit in Xuzhou in March this year, and was impressed by the latest development in the last months in Xuzhou. 

Group Photo with Mr. Cao Xinping (middle), Party Secretary of Xuzhou and Mr. Schellenberg, Consul General of Switzerland (forth from left).

During the stay, the Swiss delegation visited XCMG, the world top 5 construction machinery company and Nhwa pharmaceutical company, the first listed pharmaceutical company from Xuzhou. The company visit was followed by interesting discussions with the local companies from Xuzhou Development Zone and Xuzhou High-tech Zone. The discussions provided the companies from both sides to find out the common interest and the complimentary strength. The participants of the delegation did not only get to know the fascinated history about Xuzhou City, but were also very impressed by the current development of Xuzhou. Swiss companies showed strong interest to strengthen the collaboration with local companies in Xuzhou. The local industry also had very open attitude the work together with the Swiss companies, not only in the traditional industries, but also in the field of biomedical technology, IT, safety industry, fine machinery, etc. They would like to talk about not only foreign investment but also joint R&D projects. China University of Mining and Technology, a high-level university located in Xuzhou, showed great interest to have contact to Swiss universities and establish collaboration with the Swiss industrial and academic partners. 

The feedback of this mission was very positive. The participants of the Swiss Delegation appeal for the regular economic missions in this form.  

The view of the XCMG’s manufacturing site

What actually makes this city so interesting for so many Swiss companies? 

Xuzhou is the largest city in northern part of Jiangsu Province. It has been a city of great military importance in the history. And it is the birthplace of the first emperor of Han Dynasty (Liu Bang, 256-195BC). Xuzhou has a population of 9.9 Mio and a total area of 11,259 km2. For the past three years, the city reported the fastest growth rate in Jiangsu. In 2012, its GDP reached RMB 402 billion with an increase of 13.2%. Xuzhou has the world largest Solar Polysilicon Research and Production Base and China’s largest construction machinery research and production base. XCMG ranked top 5 in 2012 among world’s construction companies.  

The major reasons for Xuzhou to attract foreign companies are summarized below:

1. Xuzhou has very convenient transportation networks. With the high-speed train Xuzhou can be reached from Shanghai and Beijing in 2.5 hours. Next year, Xi’an is also reachable in 2.5 hours from Xuzhou. International airport and water transportation are also available. 

2. With its long tradition to be on the top list in China in terms of construction machinery, the city provides a lot of experienced technical human resources and technical expertise in this field. 

3. Compared to other cities in the Yangtze Delta, labor cost in Xuzhou is relatively low. 

Envisioning Food Safety Solutions 2025, 27 November

Even though many actors in the food safety landscape have showing strong commitment, food safety remains a big challenge in China. On Wednesday November 27 at the Napa Wine Bar & Kitchen, swissnex China collaborated with the EHL (hotel management school in Lausanne, Switzerland) organized a food safety event - “Envisioning Food Safety Solutions 2025”. 30 experts participated in the workshop aiming to find new potential solutions to the food safety challenges in China.

All the experts were divided into small groups targeting different issues according to the supply chain comprises producer (farm), distributor, food processor, distributor/wholesale, retailer, caterer, and end consumer.

But, who exactly is responsible for what kind of problems in the food supply chain?

Farms: Excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is one of the causes for unsafe food. Also, environmental pollution (of soil and water) causes contamination, which is also due to the proximity of farming areas and industry.

Distributors: As agricultural products pass through a number of distributors, foodstuff originally not contaminated can get mixed up with contaminated ones, which lead to cross-contamination.

Food processors: Overdose of chemicals is a challenge to food safety. Compared to food processors in Europe and the US, small Chinese food producers bear virtually no risks of losing their reputation. It has been reported that small food processors close down when problems occur and open up again in a different place and/or under new names. This decreases their motivation to make sure the food they produce is safe.

Retailers: Small retailers, e.g. on wet markets, again do not bear the risk of reputation losses. Wholesale retailers and larger retailers face challenges with the large number of certificates of their suppliers. Control and management is complicated which facilitates fraud. Labeling of products sold to consumers can be inaccurate, not up-to-date or missing.

Caterers (hotels and restaurants): Restaurants and hotels face might need to source food from many different sources, which make it difficult to ensure its safety. Again, small enterprises do not need to care too much about reputation losses.

From the consumer perspective, the major problems were information transparency, lack of public awareness and traceability. To deal with these problems, one small group of experts conducted a brainstorming session to come up with ideas of possible solutions, which include

1. More Education and Awareness

• Provide education to farmers
• Educate consumers to have more concerns and knowledge of food
• Offer training for international standard
• Establish training programs for local government
• Call for related party attention
• NGO for consumer education
• School education on food safety
• MOOCS + certification of people

2. Increase Information Transparency

• Website for food scandals
• 3rd Party information
• Information transparency with QR code
• Establish food network
• Create instant food safety apps with review and rating from consumers and authorities
• Develop home DIY Testing Kit

3. Increase Traceability

• Establish and apply international standards using one language
• Health certificate for food workers
• CCTV tracing
• Smart package
• Smart labeling 

4. Shorten the supply chain

• Consumers go to the farms and buy products there
• E-trading (Producer sells directly to the end consumer)

One of the approaches to realize the solutions was Smart Package (with QR code, for example). The food processors pack their product with the smart package to identify their product , which increases the traceability of the food product, improves the communication between the food processor and the end consumers to build up the trust.

Similar brainstorming discussions were conducted in different groups for respective solutions. At the end, a cocktail session was followed to let each group presented their discussion results as well as for further networking.