Zhang Yang, Zhang Qian

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    A CHINA-ISRAEL innovation base will be located in Pingshan to bring in and incubate high-tech projects from Israel, according to a press release from Pingshan’s administrative committee.

    The China-Israel University President Forum was held in Jerusalem in April this year and China’s Vice Premier Liu Yandong, along with deputies from over 40 universities in China and Israel and dozens of entrepreneurs and investors were in attendance.

    Initiated by a university league formed by 14 universities in China and Israel, the forum highlighted topics about education, technology and cultural cooperation between the two countries.

    During the forum, an agreement was signed by Pingshan’s administrative committee, Tsinghua University, a Chinese investment company CFLD and ALON Medtech Venture, an Israeli investment firm that mainly invests in startups in the medical technology field.

    According to the agreement, an innovation base will be launched in Pingshan as an incubator to bring in high-tech projects from Israel and turn academic achievements into practical applications.

    An investment forum on the two countries’ cooperation in medicine and life science was held a few months after the April agreement Sept. 23.

    The forum was jointly organized by the area’s administrative committee, the Shenzhen Committee of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Tsinghua University’s XIN Center in order to seek cooperation opportunities in biology industries between the two countries.

    As a high-end dialogue, the forum attracted 28 guests from Israel and over 40 investors from venture capital institutions.

    Pingshan is home to 11 Fortune 500 enterprises and 51 listed companies. Currently, there are over 100 high-tech companies based in Pingshan, five times the number in 2010. The new area’s output value in the new-energy-vehicle industry, led by the carmaker BYD, grew by 69.5 percent last year compared with 2014.