Shanghai, 30 July 2021 – Opportunities for investment, financing and other linkages between China’s “Silicon Valley” and Philippine tech players and startups were front and center at the July 29 meeting between the Consulate General and the Zhangjiang Group (ZG), state administrators of Zhangjiang Science City (ZSC) at the Parkyard Hotel.
Established in 1992 as the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, ZSC is a 220-sq.km hub hosting world-class industry clusters of over 24,000 global and Chinese companies, R&D institutes, MNC regional headquarters, and universities.
Home to over 400,000 “talents”, whose ranks include five Nobel Peace laureates, foreign employees and 7,500 Chinese who graduated overseas, ZSC is gaining global reputation especially in life sciences and biomedicine, digital information, and artificial intelligence.
The Consul General was accompanied by Consul Marlowe A. Miranda, Consul Conrado B. Demdem, Jr., Shanghai-Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) Chief Mr. Mario Tani, and Tourism Attaché Mr. Ireneo Reyes.
Chairman Yuan, for his part, was backstopped by Vice Manager Mr. FENG Da, Business Development Director Ms. Chelsea LU, and Marketing Manager Ms. Jin LU.
Working as a country, the Consulate General, PTIC and Philippine Department of Tourism made case for bringing together Philippine and Zhangjiang players in cooperative, mutually beneficial linkages. In particular, the Consulate General highlighted the opportunities offered by the nascent but healthy tech startup sector in the Philippines for venture capitalists based at the ZSC.
Responding positively, ZG confirmed the interest of ZSC companies and entities in overseas forays, including the Philippines, for venture capital, investments and even for markets for its goods, technologies and services.
Both sides reached understanding on undertaking a series of initial activities such as online pocket sessions, presentations, and site visits to the ZSC by the Consulate General, to engage ZSC locators.
ZG offered to organize and promote this and other activities at ZSC by the Consulate General and, should travel normalize, by visiting PH officials and industry leaders.
From January to November 2020, the total industrial output of ZSC increased 14% year-on-year to RMB 270.39 billion (USD 38.63 billion). Some of the leading global names and brands at the park are QUALCOMM, BROADCOM, NVIDIA, Roche, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Microsoft, IBM, Alibaba, Baidu, Honeywell, and AMD.
The Consulate General expressed thanks to Parkyard Hotel through its General Manager, Mr. Tony Azarias, for hosting and facilitating the meeting. END
