Asian Silicon Valley: Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Bangalore should come together

By Prasoon Sharma

China has celebrated Innovation week in various cities on the same lines India has set up Atal innovation centers in nooks and corners of the country. There are efforts going on in both the countries for creating innovators and entrepreneurs. There are efforts which are being made individually by both the countries we would propose that joint efforts should be put by both the countries for Innovation. Think on the lines of setting up India China innovation Forum and then helping both the nation to not only share but also utilize resources.

Atal innovation centers is providing financial and strategic help to all the selected incubators similarly China is also spending a lot on incubation activities, the same money can be utilized for Joint innovation activities.

Post setting up joint innovation forum, the forum can jointly utilize the ecosystem and help policy making think tanks by influencing policy decisions.

An aerial photo taken on Aug. 23, 2015 shows the Futian District in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, established on Aug. 26 in 1980 and situated immediately north of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is China's first and one of the most successful Special Economic Zones.[Photo: Xinhua]

“The new direction by President Xi for China is an innovation led growth. As such Shenzhen & HK is ready to play their role in building a world class innovation center and work with other Asian cities to bring together entrepreneurs and innovators at one platform.” said Dr. Witman Hung , Deputy to the National People’s Congress of the People's Republic of China. Dr. Witman Hung is also currently the Principal Liaison Officer for Hong Kong, Shenzhen Qianhai Authority.

"Both India and China have national policy on digitalization, innovation and Artificial Intelligence. This initiative of creating Asian Silicon Valley will bring synergy and thus success for not only India-China but whole world. Asian Silicon Valley will bring partnership between cyber cities to share each other's best practices and build up a cyber hub at the Asian level." said Mr Prafulla Ketkar, Editor of Organiser. Organiser is an affiliated publication of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)- the parent organization of the ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP). Sh. L K Advani (cofounder of BJP) was former editor of Organiser.

Shenzhen is the manufacturing hub while Bangalore as stated above is a services hub, joining both together will create synergy and will help both the nations to realize innovation targets.

Hong Kong is one of the most significant global financial centers, holding the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranking as the most competitive and freest economic area in the world. As the world's seventh-largest trading entity, its legal tender, the Hong Kong dollar, is the 13th-most traded currency. Hong Kong's tertiary sector dominated economy is characterized by competitive simple taxation and supported by its common law judiciary system.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen have close business, trade and social links and are like one connected city.

Shenzhen – The city that transformed China

Shenzhen has transformed from a fishing community of 30,000 to a sprawling industrial and financial megacity, with a population exceeding 12 million.

The city ranked first on the list of 2016 China's Urban Comprehensive Economic Competitiveness.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

In 2015, Shenzhen's economic growth maintained a healthy momentum and its GDP grew by 8.9% to 1.75 trillion yuan. It’s total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 2% to 501.78 billion yuan and the foreign trade volume increased to US$442.55 billion. The export and import volume has stayed at the top of the nation's large and medium-sized cities for the 23rd consecutive year.

ECONOMIC POWER

Shenzhen is currently fourth on the Chinese mainland in terms of economic power and is one of the country's top cities for economic returns. Surpassing Hong Kong for the first time, Shenzhen was placed first on the list of 2015 Chinese cities' comprehensive economic competitiveness, according to the 2015 Competitiveness of Chinese Cities Blue Book.

FISCAL REVENUE

Shenzhen reported a local revenue of 272.71 billion yuan in 2015, up by 30.9% from 2014. The public budget expenditure in 2015 was 351.9 billion yuan, up by 62.5% from the previous year.

ECONOMIC STATUS

Shenzhen is the main link between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and a transport hub for coastal southern China today. The city leads in high-tech development, financial services, foreign trade, shipping, and creative and cultural industries. It has undertaken a mission to pilot China's structural reform and continuous opening up to the outside world.

Bangalore – Economy, Industries and Commerce

One of the important factors spurring Bangalore's growth was that the Central Government invested heavily in public sector industries in Bangalore, partially due to the fact that it is geographically disconnected from India's competitors Pakistan and China. This led to the concentration of technical and scientific manpower in Bangalore and is a factor in leading the "IT revolution" in Bangalore.

Newsweek proclaimed Bangalore to be one of the 12 "Capitals of Style", along with Paris, London and Los Angeles.

Manufacturing Industries

Long before Bangalore was called the Silicon Valley of India, the city made its name as headquarters to some of the largest national heavy industries of India. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) headquarters was based in Bangalore and was for the most part dedicated to R&D activities for indigenous fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Today, HAL develops and maintains an impressive fleet of fighter aircraft and trainers for the Indian Air Force including Sukhoi 30 Flankers and Jaguars.

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is also headquartered in Bangalore and is dedicated to the development of aerospace technologies. NAL has a staff strength of over 1,300 employees and often works in conjunction with HAL.

"Silicon Valley"

Bangalore is called the "Silicon Valley of India" due to the large number of information technology companies located there. Many multinational corporations, especially computer hardware and software giants, have operations in Bangalore. Electronics City, located in the southern outskirts of Bangalore, is an industrial park spread over 330 acres (1.3 km²). Whitefield, located in the northeastern outskirts of the city is another technology hot spot. The government has plans to develop an information technology corridor linking Whitefield and Electronics City. Over 200 Information Technology corporations have facilities in Bangalore. At the peak of the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, Koramangala - a suburb of Bangalore, was believed to have had the highest density of telecom software companies per square mile in the world. Infosys and Wipro, India’s 2nd and 3rd largest software companies are headquartered here and are now billion dollar companies, looking to reach 2 billion in 2005.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a growing field in the city. Bangalore accounts for at least 97 of the approximately 240 biotechnology companies in India. Interest in Bangalore as a base for biotechnology companies stems from Karnataka's comprehensive biotechnology policy, described by the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology.

In 2003-2004, Karnataka attracted the maximum venture capital funding for biotechnology in the country - $8 million. Biocon, headquartered in Bangalore, is the nation's leading biotechnology company and ranks 16th in the world in revenues.

Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) which is initiated by Biotechnology vision group, ICICI, Biocon which is located in ITPL is trying to shape revolutionary scientists in the field. Like the software industry which initially drew most of its talent from the local public-sector engineering industries, the biotechnology industry had access to talent from the National Center of Biological Sciences(NCBS)and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

(Prasoon Sharma, Director of India Global’s Centre for Chinese studies)