Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    SHENZHEN and Edinburgh, Scotland, are still thousands of kilometers apart, but today they are a little closer. The Edinburgh-Shenzhen Creative Incubator held its opening ceremony in Edinburgh on Tuesday night local time, with three Chinese startups signing contracts to set up offices in Edinburgh.

    “This is the culmination of a number of years’ collaboration between the City of Edinburgh Council and the Shenzhen government,” said Donald Wilson, mayor of Edinburgh.

    The new incubator is based in a creative center and provides Chinese companies rent-free offices and a chance to access a foreign market and creative talent.

    “The inspirational space here at the Creative Exchange aims to encourage Shenzhen SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in the creative and technology sectors to expand in Edinburgh and raise their international profiles,” Wilson said.

    Shenzhen Vice Mayor Wu Yihuan talked about Shenzhen’s dynamic atmosphere of entrepreneurship.

    One of the Shenzhen companies setting up shop in Scotland is a software company called Eagles-CG Software. They will look for game developers in the city and provide game art outsourcing services. The company also hopes to bring its games onto the U.K. market.

    Another Shenzhen company, the Miracle Inc., aims to bridge the gap between the mobile Internet and the soccer business. It wants to invite British soccer players to participate in games held by the company and learn how soccer culture developed.

    The companies aren’t limited to the tech sector, with Blossom House Drama also opening an office in Edinburgh. Blossom House Drama is the first professional group in Shenzhen to practice educational drama and theater. It hopes to partner with local companies to develop tours for Chinese groups.

    Wu said that to be able to enter the Edinburgh incubator, companies need to belong to cultural, creative design or technology industries. They need to submit an overseas marketing proposal to the Shenzhen center and go through an interview.

    Apart from free offices, companies have to shoulder their own costs in Edinburg, said Wu.

    Shenzhen and Edinburgh became sister cities in 2012 and signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013 to build matching creative industry incubators within three years.

    The Shenzhen-based Incubator for Edinburgh companies opened in May this year in the F518 business park in Bao’an District. Ten Edinburgh-based companies have traveled to Shenzhen with an interest in opening up offices in the incubator, according to Wilson.