Financial institutions in China's Shanghai and Tianjin are building incubators for the development of sci-tech startups.
In Shanghai, more than 40 sci-tech startups have settled in the Zhangjiang Incubator of the Pudong Development Bank Innovation Center, covering multiple fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence.
The Zhangjiang Incubator not only provides offices, account settlement and policy declaration for the startups, but also helps them secure loans, negotiate business deals, and find investments.
A company in the field of artificial blood vessels received a credit loan from the bank even without any income. Because it moved into the incubator, the bank knew its startup team, research progress, and growth very well.
"The bank granted us a credit loan, and it was because of this credit loan that we completed the construction of our factory, which also helped us secure a new round of financing of 30 million yuan (about 4.14 million U.S. dollars). With the factory and this financing, we were able to enter the phases of clinical trials," said Dai Weimin, chairman of Sunna Technologies (Shanghai) Company.
In north China's Tianjin Municipality, the Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park was established, where enterprises in the park can benefit from joint support from technology, industry to finance. Financial institutions have set up branches in the park to provide comprehensive services for startups.
"We do not meet the typical conditions for bank loans. Because we are in a special incubator environment of the Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park and have an investment-loan linkage product from the Agricultural Bank of China, we are able to secure our first loan to overcome significant difficulties," said He Jianjun, general manager of Tianrun Hanyang Technology (Tianjin) Company.
"Over 90 percent of the companies in the innovation park are early-stage private enterprises. We have launched several financial products tailored to the companies in the Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park based on their characteristics. Meanwhile, we actively assist these enterprises in facilitating investment and financing connections and strengthen cooperation with small and medium-sized guarantee companies to address the medium- to long-term large financing needs of these businesses," said Han Le, deputy manager of the Tianjin Nankai Sub-branch of the Agricultural Bank of China.
China's financial institutions create business incubators for sci-tech startups
Colombians are heading to the polls on Sunday to elect their next president. The country's constitution prevents the current President, Gustavo Petro, from running for a second term.
Yet, many see this election as a referendum on the policies of Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist president.
There are 14 candidates on Sunday's ballot, but the polls show it will likely be a tight three-way race.
The frontrunner is Ivan Cepeda, a 63-year-old three-term senator, representing President Gustavo Petro's party, the Historic Pact coalition. Cepeda has vowed to defend and deepen Petro's progressive reforms and social justice policies to reduce inequality. He also promises to continue the government's controversial "Total Peace" strategy to negotiate the disarmament of remaining guerrilla groups and criminal gangs.
"True prosperity comes from equality, from access to rights, and from transforming the peripheral and excluded territories of the rural world," Cepeda said at a campaign rally.
Running as a political outsider and independent is Abelardo de la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer, nicknamed "The Tiger." He has presented himself as the "authority and order" candidate who will reduce state spending by up to 40 percent in the next four years.
"(First,) we must fight insecurity. Colombia is suffering today from a pandemic of insecurity. Crime is out of control: extortion, cattle theft, smuggling, drug trafficking," he said to his supporters at an election event.
According to polls, the third candidate with strong support is Paloma Valencia. The 48-year-old senator represents the Democratic Center party led by popular former President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Her candidacy is backed by politicians and economists who are concerned with growing levels of public debt. They want to see a return to more conservative fiscal policies.
"I don't want to be a president who governs alone, locked away in glass offices. I want to be a president who stands with citizens, who embraces them, who reaches out to them, who has a team, and who governs to transform Colombia," the candidate said at the campaign event
According to polls earlier in the year, many voters are expressing concerns about unemployment, rising living costs, corruption, and, above all, public security.
The election comes after a turbulent year that the International Committee of the Red Cross has called "the worst humanitarian consequences of armed conflict over the past decade."
"(We arrive at this election in a tense atmosphere - tense) because of the economic situation, because of the security situation, and because of the narratives that have been built around the country's main problems. On top of that, emotions, ideas and social media have all helped raise (the tone,)" said Eduardo Velosa, associate professor from International Studies Javeriana University.
If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held between the top two finishers on June 21st.
Colombians prepare to choose their next president
