Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    THE F518 Idea Land in Bao’an District held a ceremony Friday night to mark the one-year anniversary of the Edinburgh-Shenzhen Creative Exchange. Winners of an innovation competition were also announced.

    The event was also a key event of the 12th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair. John Somers, first secretary of Scottish Affairs at the British Embassy in Beijing and Jim Galloway, Edinburgh city council head of enterprise and innovation, attended the ceremony with officials from the Shenzhen Municipal Cultural, Sports and Tourism Administration, Invest Shenzhen and the Shenzhen Municipal Foreign Affairs Office.

    The creative exchange incubator was jointly launched by the Shenzhen government and the Edinburgh City Council last year to tighten the relationship between the two cities in creative industries and technology.

    Officials from both sides delivered speeches at the ceremony and said that the past year has been fruitful for the incubator. Hopes for the future cooperation in cultural industries were addressed during the speeches.

    The incubator served nearly 30 startups at home and abroad. There are seven foreign startups in the Shenzhen incubator at the moment, while the Edinburgh incubator is housing three Shenzhen cultural enterprises in the U.K.

    The incubator held an innovation competition named “Create in Shenzhen Competition” in Edinburgh last December. Five British startups stood out at the competition. The five enterprises, from the fields of creative industries or technologies, were Cobra Simulation, Freakworks, Sainted Media, Coda Octopus and Sunamp.

    The five winning startups received awards at the event. A new international competition, “Create in Edinburgh Competition,” was also announced. The new competition will follow its predecessor and provide air tickets, food and accommodation for the winning startups that have plans to start businesses in the U.K.

    The incubator will also work with the Edinburgh City Hall to organize a resources matchmaking meeting for the winning enterprises to promote their companies. Details of the competition can be found at www.edinburghshenzhen.com.

    A project named Shenzhen-Scotland Innovation & Entrepreneurship Express Train was also inked. The project will be led by Invest Shenzhen and operated by the Shenzhen Creative Investment Group in a bid to integrate global innovation resources in Shenzhen.

    The incubator will carry out resource matchmaking meetings for the five British startups that won prizes from the innovation competition during the following days.