£1m on offer to entrepreneurs in international competition

A competition with a prize fund of £1million is being rolled out by Queen’s University, Belfast to students and local companies to encourage new business ventures between China and the UK.

The university is part of a consortium running the China UK Entrepreneurship Competition, which is also led by local government organisations in Chongging and Tianjin.

The competition aims to encourage new business ventures between the two countries and replicates the process of entrepreneurs securing start-up funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms.

The overall winner will be announced at the national finals at University College, London in June and events are also taking place at other participating universities. The competition was launched at the University of York and semi-finals will be hosted in April by Lancaster University and Queen’s University - which is involved in the competition for the first time this year.

The competition, now in its third year, is divided into two strands – Innovative Business track for existing businesses in the UK or China, and Tomorrow’s Leaders track - for students at any UK or Chinese university. Both strands promote business ideas that use international resources or markets.
Thirty-two teams will be selected to take part in the competition in order to win up to £10,000 in prizes, with an investment opportunity of £250,000 in the finals.

Yu Xiong, a lecturer at Queen’s University Management School, is director of the China UK Entrepreneurship Competition organising committee. He said: “The competition has been developed by partners in the UK and China to bring together existing business and new student-led start-ups hoping to develop commercial relationships and exploit market opportunities through business collaborations between China and the UK.

“China is becoming a more and more important country economically. It has not been affected by the recession in the same ways as others. Business opportunities there are huge and it has a rising scientific and technological base that is increasingly attracting worldwide attention.

“Doing business overseas can be daunting for many entrepreneurs but the programme aims to promote the opportunities that exist and to highlight potential stars to watch in the future. Those taking part learn a lot through the process and their ideas can translate to real business opportunities.”