EIGHTEEN teams have entered the semifinal for the Motivation Plan competition. Shortlisted teams are taking part in a five-day training camp to prepare for the final at Ping An School of Finance Management.

This year’s project targets finance and technology to promote sustainable development, and brought in 9,837 teams to join in the preliminary competition. The training camp started Sunday.

Team members are university students from all over the country, including comprehensive colleges such as Tsinghua, Peking, Nanjing and Nankai universities, Renmin University of China and financial and economic universities such as Central University of Finance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

During the training camp, students will visit Shenzhen’s renowned enterprises in the financial and technology fields, including Ping An, DJI and BGI.

Experts in various fields from Sun Yat-sen, Xiamen and Wuhan universities and the Chinese Academy of Science will take part in the camp to lead a group discussion with the students on how finance and sci-tech drive the development of social sustainability. The seminar will set a solid foundation for the following contest.

The 2020 Motivation Plan was jointly hosted by Ping An, China Youth Daily, China Youth Development Foundation and Institute for Global Industry, Tsinghua University.

The two research fields this year were selected out of the 17 sustainable development goals set by the U.N., specifically sustainable cities and communities and responsible consumption and production.

The Motivation Plan is a long-term public benefits project that was initiated in August 2003. The project aims to motivate students to conduct academic research and develop new concepts and theories for positive economic development in China.

For the past 16 years, the project has awarded 5,615 outstanding students a total of 18.8 million yuan (US$2.9 million).

(Chen Siqi)