Cradle of IT firms and listings
The Nanshan district in Shenzhen is not only home to many of the city's hi-tech firms, it is also the breeding ground for thousands of technology startups.
With an area of only 185 square kilometres, Nanshan is the base of more than 100 public-listed companies, including Tencent, ZTE, Kingdee, Mindray, Hanslaser and Yulong.
There are more than 8,000 technology firms in the district, of which 84 per cent are in new and emerging industries. In 2014, the district recorded a GDP of 346.4 billion yuan (HK$414 billion), the highest among the top 10 districts in Guangdong and accounting for 20 per cent Shenzhen's total.
The heart of Nanshan District is the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park, one of the five state-level hi-tech parks established in 1996. It covers an area of 11.5 square kilometres and is expanding.
Nanshan has also taken the lead in the incubation of technology startups, with the opening of the Shenzhen Nanshan Hi-Tech Incubator (SNHI) in 1999, one of the city's first of such facilities.
The SNHI is an international business incubator under the Nanshan Science and Technology Bureau of the Nanshan District government.
Its mission is to initiate and implement strategies to strengthen the development and financing of technology startups, and to provide them with all-round services and assistance. It also provides platforms for the exchange of resources among the startups and for international exchange and cooperation.
For technology startups, SNHI offers services such as low-cost office space, financing and information assistance, patent and taxation consultation services, business management assistance, training and international exchange help, and other government services. By the end of last year, SNHI had established 16 incubation bases, with a total floor area of 1.1 million square metres.
Of the more than 1,000 startups within the bases, more than 60 have gone public or are in the process of applying for a listing.
SNHI has also hosted the "Star Entrepreneurs" competition, a major event in Shenzhen's technology sector. Since its inception in 2008, the annual competition has attracted 5,000 entries, and nearly 100 investors have injected more than 1.5 billion yuan into 150 projects.
