May 16, 2017, Houston, Texas: At the US China Innovation and Investment Summit (UCIS) today, the Washington, DC based National Center for Sustainable Development (NCSD) and Zhenjiang Economic and Information Technology Commission of Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province jointly announce the signing of the Zhenjiang-NCSD “US-China Small Business Innovation Exchange Center” Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement. Many officials from both countries witnessed this historical moment, including Mr. Li Qiangmin, the Consul General, Chinese Consulate General in Houston, Congressman Pete Olson, Mr. Sylvester Turner, Mayor of Houston, Bernard Harris, President of US China Innovation Alliance and other Representatives of State of Texas, including Small Business Administration Houston Office.
According to the agreement, the Zhenjiang Economy and Information Technology Commission and NCSD will work together to establish the US-China Small Business Innovation Exchange Center, in both Houston and Zhenjiang, China. This incubation base will become China’s first SME innovation and development platform built by China and US together. This platform will provide specialized and diversified incubation services to promote direct and in-depth cooperation among small and medium enterprises in Zhenjiang and the US. It will also help small and medium enterprises in Zhenjiang find new partners in US in domains such as technology, investment and marketing, to grow bigger and stronger in a healthy manner. Incubation technology will steadily expand from Houston, Texas to other high tech zones.
Incubation technology will facilitate the cooperation between U.S. innovative resources and small and medium enterprises (SME) in China, where incubation technology will expand from Zhenjiang to other regions. The U.S. Innovation Resource Center will create new brands and promote the development of high technology medium and small-sized enterprises, which will play a very important role in the development process of small and medium enterprise innovation. Incubators will focus on aerospace, biomedical, environmental, energy, manufacturing, information and communications areas. It is the founders’ mutual hope to seek cooperative opportunities between the U.S. and China and help Chinese investors to access and invest in the best-in-class technologies and products located in the U.S.A. and also help the U.S.-based technology companies’ source investors and partners who can help them to access the Chinese market.
Mr. Bu, Xiaofang, Director, Zhenjiang Economic and Information Technology Commission said “Zhenjiang is an emerging industrial city with small and medium-sized enterprises as its economic backbone, and is the only Pilot City for the “Small Business Reform and Development” program and funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Through many years of development, Zhenjiang today is gradually becoming a key and advanced manufacturing base for aerospace industry, new energy industry, information technology development, bio medicine research and development, intelligent electric network technology, marine vessels and ship building, high performance alloy materials, high polymer materials production, automobiles and parts supply chain, solar photovoltaic manufacture, life science and medical instruments and other industrial clusters in the region of Yangtze River Delta”. He continued: “2017 is the beginning of “13th Five-Year Plan” in China. It is also a new start for Zhenjiang SME future plan.
We are willing to break the routine, and innovate ourselves into a new development mechanism, to support the future innovation and development of Zhenjiang SMEs with a global perspective in mind to accelerate Zhenjiang SME services to reach at a new high and making an example for other cities in Jiangsu province to follow. We believe the establishment of US-China Small Business Innovation Exchange Center with NCSD will further enhance our vision and goal to utilize the resources of small business innovation in the United States and China to promote the cooperation of both countries small business is a smart and practical move by both partners”.
Mitchell Stanley, the chairman of NCSD, said: “As a Senior Executive Service officer of President Reagan’s and President G.H.W.Bush’s Administrations, I oversaw many of the federal small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) programs. I realized that almost 99% of American SMEs have no channel to reach the Chinese market. American SMEs provide a great number of technological innovations and they are eager to cooperate with Chinese SMEs in funds, marketing, and technologies etc. NCSD is excited to cooperate with Zhenjiang Municipal Commission of Economy and Information to establish a solid platform for Chinese and American SMEs to communicate integrate and transform innovative information. Meanwhile, the platform will facilitate the in-depth cooperation of excellent American and Chinese SMEs to complement each other and achieve a win-win situation.
With the support of Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Houston, Zhenjiang Municipal Government, Texas State Government, Houston Municipal Government, U.S. Small Business Administration Texas District Office, Houston Technology Center, Texas Medical Center Accelerator, and George Washington University’s EEMI (Energy and Environment Management Institute,) we are full of confidence for the successful operation and bright future of Zhenjiang-Sino-America SMEs incubation base.
