At the invitation of the Chengdu Municipal Government, the Committee of 100 hosted a “C-100 Innovation Forum” on October 16, featuring a delegation of members led by Charlie Sie. Sie reported that a standing-room-only audience of 500 members representing a cross-section of Chengdu citizens attended the Forum, which was broadcast by Sichuan TV. The delegation met with Chengdu Mayor Ge Honglin before the Forum. Sichuan Party Secretary Li Dengju opened the Forum with welcome remarks.
C-100 Innovation Forum: From left: Zhang Yi (Forum moderator), Charlie Sie, Carter Tseng, Xu Guanlin, Liu Yonghao, Wufu Chen and Shu Li
The C-100 delegation was composed of Sie, Chairman of Aviva Bioscience Corporation; Wu-Fu Chen, Chairman of Acorn Campus; Shu Li, Founder, W.A. Regenerative Medicine Holdings; and Carter Tseng, Founder and CEO of Little Dragon Foundation and co-founder of Microtek. Joining the C-100 members as speakers were Professor Su Guanlin, President Emeritus of Nanyang Technology University (Singapore), and Liu Yonghao, Chairman of the Hope Group. Chengdu news anchorman Zhang Yi moderated the Forum.
Tseng suggested the creation of a “Bird’s Nest for Innovation” in Chengdu, with funding of 10 billion RMB to nurture local talent and support innovation. Liu echoed Tseng’s suggestion and commented that one should not only build a bird’s nest but take care that the eggs are kept healthy so that they can be harvested. Everyone says “learn from Silicon Valley,” said Chen, but it was necessary to go beyond simply studying the paths of a few highly successful IT companies. Instead, one had to learn what lay behind Silicon Valley’s success—its culture, institutions and laws. Li recommended that Sichuan province create new industries: "Uniqueness and no competition are the best—either you are the best, or you are the first.” Sie commented that innovations could be focused on areas that resolve conflicts emerging from China’s rapid development and the desire to preserve the environment. A lively Q&A session followed the prepared remarks.
Sie said that the Forum was an unqualified success, as demonstrated by the many fruitful exchanges following the program and by the extensive coverage by the China News Service, Chengdu Daily and China.com, among other media.
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