Chinese cities are competing to woo overseas entrepreneurs
The authorities are offering foreign founders office space, cash,advice, logistics services and even basic furniture
Feb 22nd 2018 | CHENGDU
WHEN Maria Veikhman, founder of SCORISTA, a Russian credit-scoring startup, was considering expansion abroad, China immediately came to mind. She believes the scope there is vast, for two-fifths of Chinese have no credit records. Ms Veikhman settled in Tianfu Software Park, a state-owned incubator in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province where city authorities “offer almost everything for free”. Complementary facilities range from office space, basic furniture and logistics services to detailed guidance on entrepreneurial methods.
Chengdu aims to catch up with Beijing,Shanghai, and Shenzhen, which at present are in a different entrepreneurial league—together they have over a hundred unicorns, or private startups worth over $1bn. The south-western city allocated 200m yuan ($30m) in 2016 to an innovation-and-startup fund for overseas founders, and hands out up to 1m yuan in cash to well-capitalised foreign startups and joint ventures. If the founders are “top international talents”, such as Nobel laureates, the incentive soars to 100m yuan. Last March Chengdu’s Hi-Tech Zone opened an office to provide startup services for expats, including corporate registrations. Some 3,000 foreigners now work there, many operating their own businesses.
incubator: a device that is used to keep eggs warm before they hatch; here means: an organization or place that helps in the development of new business
成都为了追赶北京上海深圳，吸引外国高技术人才来这里创业，给出了很多优惠的政策：免费的办公场所，简单的桌椅，和详细的指导
Other cities are making similar moves.Beijing and Zhejiang have opened well-funded centres for overseas entrepreneurs. The authorities may be particularly keen on attracting venturesome “sea turtles”, meaning foreign-educated or foreign-born Chinese, but they help non-ethnic Chinese too. Shanghai and Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, are planning new facilities for winners of international startup competitions held in China. In at least ten provinces, new immigration policies are easing the visa process. Foreigners graduating from Chinese universities can apply for two- to five-year residence permits marked “startup”. If they meet certain criteria, expatriates working for young firms can apply for permanent residence. In Zhongguancun, a tech hub in Beijing, 353 expatriates have been issued with “green cards” since 2016. A state-owned incubator there, Zhongguancun Inno Way, in 2017 incubated 878 startups; 121 of them were founded by foreigners or by sea turtles.
Three big hurdles still stand in the way of foreign entrepreneurs. Despite cities’ efforts to smooth immigration, for many founders visas are still hard to come by. Ms Veikhman has been refused a visa for months with little explanation, and has to shuttle between Moscow and Chengdu each month. Tight internet control also cuts the efficiency of starting a business. Overseas entrepreneurs must work hard to adapt to the internet environment inside the “great firewall” where Google, Twitter and many other services are blocked.
expatriate: noun, a person who lives in a foreign country
尽管各种优惠政策很好，但对于外国创业者来说，还是有三大难题！
这段讲了签证问题和网络问题~
Notwithstanding the cash on offer from Chengdu and other cities, raising proper finance also remains problematic.Capital controls make it difficult for venture-capital firms that use yuan to invest in foreign entities; they usually have to enter a joint venture with a Chinese citizen. Local investors tend to prefer backing fully Chinese enterprises.
Yet the country’s other attractions are potent. “Even a niche market in China is a huge one,” says Greig Charlton, a former British banker who has run 247tickets.com, a ticket-purchase website, in Shanghai since 2014. Thanks to the promise of online ticket-booking in China, are latively inexperienced entrepreneur like Mr Charlton has the opportunity to work with some of the world’s biggest concert-promoters.
这段讲了融资的问题，中国的投资者更倾向于投资中国的企业，所以这些外国创业者一般会和中国人合伙~
三大难题讲完话锋立马一转到了讲优势了： 在中国细分到很细致的市场（niche market 利基市场）都还是蛮大的市场
A deep pool of talent is another lure—the reason why, for example, App Annie, a market data and insights provider co-founded by a group of European entrepreneurs in Beijing, maintained its R&D; centre in Beijing even after it shifted its headquarters to San Francisco. When Stuart Oda, a Japanese entrepreneur, co-founded Alesca Life, a Beijing-based agricultural-technology company, he found young Chinese executives far more willing to take a risk with a startup than Japanese ones were.
Low labour costs as well as preferential land and taxation policies also help startups.In the internet realm prominent examples of those founded by foreigners in China are Qunar.com, a popular travel portal, and Tudou.com, which merged with Youku, another startup, in 2012 to become China’s biggest video-streaming platform. Qunar.com was co-founded by Fritz Demopoulos, an American. A Dutch serial entrepreneur, Marc van der Chijs,co-founded Tudou.com.
其他两个优势是： 大量的人才和低人力成本和更好的土地和税费政策
What explains the warmth towards overseas entrepreneurs? Lin Tao, a senior official of Chengdu’s hi-tech zone, gives a simple answer. Chengdu wants to turn itself into a cosmopolitan city like NewYork and London by 2025, and “the gathering of global talents is a precondition”, he says. Another entrepreneurial type, Steven Tong, chief executive of Startupbootcamp China, cites the government’s desire to develop cutting-edge technologies. It also wants to promote a favourable view of China, he notes, and that is far easier to achieve with startups than with established multinational companies.
cosmopolitan: having people from many different parts of the world
总结：城市的发展要有远见和大局，要提供良好的政策吸引人来才能发展，这方面很多地方政府都做的不错!
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Results
Lexile®Measure: 1200L - 1300L
Mean Sentence Length: 17.41
Mean Log Word Frequency: 2.92
Word Count: 766
这篇文章的最后部分蓝思值是在1200-1300L， 适合英语专业大二大三水平学习！
使用kindle断断续续地读《经济学人》三年，发现从一开始磕磕碰碰到现在比较顺畅地读完，进步很大，推荐购买！点击这里可以去亚马逊官网购买~
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