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College entrepreneur award gives students chance to start a business
By Wu Huixin |
October 9, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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FOR college students with little money who aspire to start a business, support from the government is necessary to make their pioneering days smoother.
As the provincial capital of Zhejiang, Hangzhou is always working hard to attract college students and graduates to start businesses in the city and promote entrepreneurship among students.
The Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award is the local government's effort to support college students to realize their entrepreneurial dream. The award was first held in 2008 and was followed by another in 2010. The third competition is now open.
The previous two awards successfully lured a combined 2,754 projects, and 83 companies run by college students and graduates were set up in Hangzhou.
This year the competition will hand out two grand prizes of 30,000 yuan (US$4,771) each, four first prizes of 20,000 yuan, 12 second prizes of 10,000 yuan and 32 third prizes of 5,000 yuan.
However, the most attractive element of the Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award isn't the prize money, but the preferential policies for winning projects.
If the awarded-project owners choose to run their projects and register companies in Hangzhou, they can enjoy either of the following two preferential policies.
The first is zero down payment on registered capital, free business registration, housing rental subsidies and exhibition subsidies and help with a financial aid ranging from 50,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan.
The second one is for projects matching "Green and Blue Plan" qualifications. The plan aims at supporting startup teams led by university teachers or experts of research institutes. Those that qualify can get up to 200,000 yuan in financial aid.
"Now the government is prepared to draft a policy to cultivate university students with innovative undertakings within five years. The policy will likely offer such students an interest-free loan of 500,000 yuan," said Wang Jialiang, director general of the Hangzhou Administration of Human Resources.
Hangzhou Administration of Human Resources is a subordinate department of the Hangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. It endeavors to offer vocational services to college and university graduates.
The Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award has also captured the attention of venture capital enterprises seeking to fund projects they believe have strong potential.
"If a project successfully gets investment from VC enterprises, the local government will also invest in the project. The government will invest up to 30 percent of what was provided by the VC firm," said Chen Guomei, Party secretary of the Hangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.
In the previous two awards, the government offered a combined 20 million yuan to support winning projects. Of the winning projects, seven have achieved annual turnover of more than 3 million yuan each and two of those exceeded 10 million yuan each.
Grace Education was one of the nine successful projects that has already developed into a strong company. With 70 employees, its annual sales volume in 2011 was 20 million yuan.
It is a personalized education-oriented corporation aimed at middle school students. Chen Xu, the founder of Grace Education, still studies at Zhejiang University. He participated in the First Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award in 2008 and won the first prize.
Sound environment
"After I won the prize in this competition, Cybernaut, a VC firm in China, invested 10 million yuan in my company. This competition helped my company grow fast," Chen said.
Yu Naibo attended the competition and won a third prize in the same year as Chen. His project aimed at optimizing the teaching process has evolved into Zhejiang Howlang Artificial Intelligent Technology Group in 2009 with government assistance.
Nowadays, his company has expanded to other provinces and annual turnover in 2011 was 80 million yuan.
The Hangzhou native chose to come back to his hometown after graduating from Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2007 inXi'an, Shaanxi Province.
"Hangzhou provides a good atmosphere for starting an innovative undertaking," Yu said. "I applied for the financial appropriation promised by the government's preferential policies to develop my company when I won the prize."
Both Yu and Chen have become examples for those who desire to start a business.
Apart from providing financial assistance, the government has also worked with Hangzhou colleges and universities to set up 40 vocation guidance offices and various student societies, which offer vocational training, employment information and other services.
Lin Fei, a sophomore at Zhejiang University of Technology, is a member of the school's Know About Business Club.
"Our society provides a platform, information and resources for club members, and encourages students to take an active part in various student entrepreneur awards. The previous chairman of our club, Li Ke, has started a clothing business," said Lin.
From now to January 8, 2013, university students studying home and abroad, overseas returnees graduated in 2011 or 2012 and graduates who graduated in 2011 or 2012 in China can participate in the competition. Visit www.hzrc.com/cy for more information.
Any student who wants to take part in should organize a team of 10 people or less although only four team members will be allowed to attend the public debate finals.
Four-hundred projects will be selected in the preliminary contest by late January. The semifinals are planned for early March and 100 projects will qualify for the next round. The final is scheduled for late May and the prizes will be awarded after a public debate.
As the provincial capital of Zhejiang, Hangzhou is always working hard to attract college students and graduates to start businesses in the city and promote entrepreneurship among students.
The Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award is the local government's effort to support college students to realize their entrepreneurial dream. The award was first held in 2008 and was followed by another in 2010. The third competition is now open.
The previous two awards successfully lured a combined 2,754 projects, and 83 companies run by college students and graduates were set up in Hangzhou.
This year the competition will hand out two grand prizes of 30,000 yuan (US$4,771) each, four first prizes of 20,000 yuan, 12 second prizes of 10,000 yuan and 32 third prizes of 5,000 yuan.
However, the most attractive element of the Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award isn't the prize money, but the preferential policies for winning projects.
If the awarded-project owners choose to run their projects and register companies in Hangzhou, they can enjoy either of the following two preferential policies.
The first is zero down payment on registered capital, free business registration, housing rental subsidies and exhibition subsidies and help with a financial aid ranging from 50,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan.
The second one is for projects matching "Green and Blue Plan" qualifications. The plan aims at supporting startup teams led by university teachers or experts of research institutes. Those that qualify can get up to 200,000 yuan in financial aid.
"Now the government is prepared to draft a policy to cultivate university students with innovative undertakings within five years. The policy will likely offer such students an interest-free loan of 500,000 yuan," said Wang Jialiang, director general of the Hangzhou Administration of Human Resources.
Hangzhou Administration of Human Resources is a subordinate department of the Hangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. It endeavors to offer vocational services to college and university graduates.
The Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award has also captured the attention of venture capital enterprises seeking to fund projects they believe have strong potential.
"If a project successfully gets investment from VC enterprises, the local government will also invest in the project. The government will invest up to 30 percent of what was provided by the VC firm," said Chen Guomei, Party secretary of the Hangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.
In the previous two awards, the government offered a combined 20 million yuan to support winning projects. Of the winning projects, seven have achieved annual turnover of more than 3 million yuan each and two of those exceeded 10 million yuan each.
Grace Education was one of the nine successful projects that has already developed into a strong company. With 70 employees, its annual sales volume in 2011 was 20 million yuan.
It is a personalized education-oriented corporation aimed at middle school students. Chen Xu, the founder of Grace Education, still studies at Zhejiang University. He participated in the First Hangzhou College Student Entrepreneur Award in 2008 and won the first prize.
Sound environment
"After I won the prize in this competition, Cybernaut, a VC firm in China, invested 10 million yuan in my company. This competition helped my company grow fast," Chen said.
Yu Naibo attended the competition and won a third prize in the same year as Chen. His project aimed at optimizing the teaching process has evolved into Zhejiang Howlang Artificial Intelligent Technology Group in 2009 with government assistance.
Nowadays, his company has expanded to other provinces and annual turnover in 2011 was 80 million yuan.
The Hangzhou native chose to come back to his hometown after graduating from Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2007 inXi'an, Shaanxi Province.
"Hangzhou provides a good atmosphere for starting an innovative undertaking," Yu said. "I applied for the financial appropriation promised by the government's preferential policies to develop my company when I won the prize."
Both Yu and Chen have become examples for those who desire to start a business.
Apart from providing financial assistance, the government has also worked with Hangzhou colleges and universities to set up 40 vocation guidance offices and various student societies, which offer vocational training, employment information and other services.
Lin Fei, a sophomore at Zhejiang University of Technology, is a member of the school's Know About Business Club.
"Our society provides a platform, information and resources for club members, and encourages students to take an active part in various student entrepreneur awards. The previous chairman of our club, Li Ke, has started a clothing business," said Lin.
From now to January 8, 2013, university students studying home and abroad, overseas returnees graduated in 2011 or 2012 and graduates who graduated in 2011 or 2012 in China can participate in the competition. Visit www.hzrc.com/cy for more information.
Any student who wants to take part in should organize a team of 10 people or less although only four team members will be allowed to attend the public debate finals.
Four-hundred projects will be selected in the preliminary contest by late January. The semifinals are planned for early March and 100 projects will qualify for the next round. The final is scheduled for late May and the prizes will be awarded after a public debate.
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