After rounds of selection, 14 projects from nine major categories advanced to the finals of the Innovation Nanshan 2024 Entrepreneurs Star Contest, which was held on Oct. 22.

This year, a total of 1,750 projects registered for the competition, an increase of 14% compared to last year. Among them, 52 projects from Nanshan have advanced to the final of the municipal competition and 32 projects have advanced to the national competition. The number of projects from Nanshan entering the finals of municipal and national competitions has ranked first in the city. The competition has also received enthusiastic response from investment and financing institutions. Currently, five participating projects have received over 50 million yuan (US$7 million) in investment and financing support. In addition, 20 projects are currently under follow-up research and approval. In addition, the competition actively promotes the commercial transformation of innovative technological achievements, and three projects have further developed in Nanshan.

The Innovation Nanshan Entrepreneurs Star Contest, as a large innovation and entrepreneurship event in Nanshan, has been held since 2008, setting a precedent for local governments to host innovation and entrepreneurship events. Over the past 17 years, the contest has attracted more than 20,000 innovative projects to participate, with a total investment of 90 million yuan.

The contest is divided into various categories, including industry competition, artificial intelligence challenge, future competition, international competition, and out-of-town competition. The five major competitions are divided into different categories based on the content of the competition, targeting startups and growth enterprises.

The artificial intelligence challenge is one of the newly established challenges for the 16th China Shenzhen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and is exclusively hosted by Nanshan District.

According to statistics, the projects generated and accelerated by the contest have contributed over 30 billion yuan to the GDP of Nanshan District, and efficiently facilitated over 480 high-quality projects to receive a cumulative investment of 4.6 billion yuan.