Perfect Ending of “APEC Startups Incubator Capacity Building Symposium towards Digital Society” by Beijing International Exchange Association of China

From August 25th to 27th, the "APEC Incubator Capacity Building Seminar for the Digital Society" hosted by Beijing International Exchange Association was a fruitful success in Beijing. Nearly 80 experts and participants from Nankai University, 17 APEC member economies and Brazil participated in the event online and offline, sharing experiences through keynote speeches, parallel forums, and group discussions. With active exchanges and communication with each other, they successfully put forward several pieces of suggestions to improve the capacity building of incubators, looking forward to the cooperation of APEC entrepreneurial incubators, and empowering sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region.

On August 25, the opening ceremony of the "APEC Startups Incubator Capacity Building Symposium towards Digital Society" was held as scheduled.  Zhang Yanqi, President of the Beijing International Exchange Association, delivered welcome speech, which opened the curtain for the smooth convening of the event.

At the Symposium, the research report of "the Overview on APEC Incubator Developments--Origin, Current Situations and Vision After 2020" jointly prepared by Beijing International Exchange Association and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Research Center of Nankai University was officially released. The report summarizes the latest practice and mature experience of cooperation in the development of APEC entrepreneurial incubators, and proposes a capacity building route including collective action and the "Pathfinder Approach" for further capacity building, deepening extensive cooperation after 2020.

In the keynote speech, five experts from China, Malaysia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, and New Zealand all expressed their experience and practices without reservation. They introduced the development status of incubators from multiple perspectives and deeply analyzed the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the new trends in the development of entrepreneurial incubators in the post-pandemic era.

The APEC incubator dialogue platform mainly comprised four themes--"Policy Incentives for Startups Incubator", "Incubator Capacity Building and Entrepreneurship Ecology", "Incubator Helps MSMEs for Digital Transformation", and "Female Entrepreneurs and Executives’ Capacity Building through Incubator". On each parallel session, all experts and representatives actively conducted group speeches and discussions.

Eight incubator representatives from 4 APEC member economies in Chile, Mexico, China, and Vietnam expressed their opinions on the theme of "Policy Incentives for Startups Incubator" and provided practical cases and experiences; 11 guests from 9 economies including China, Russia, Singapore, and New Zealand Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea participated in the "Incubator Capacity Building and Entrepreneurship Ecology" parallel session, introducing unique entrepreneurial ecosystems in multiple fields such as technology, vedio games, and food, sharing advanced experience, and looking forward to in-depth cooperation; scholars, experts, and business representatives from the three APEC economies of China, Russia, and Malaysia actively discussed the incubator’s role in the digital transformation of SMEs, which pointed out the direction for economic recovery in the post-epidemic era; female entrepreneurs from 7 APEC economies in Singapore, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand and Brazil talked about personal startup experience; through funds and accelerator projects, they provided unique services for female entrepreneurs to strengthen the building of female leadership capabilities.

After three days of intense discussions, experts and participants from 17 APEC member economies and Brazil altogether concluded with eight policy suggestions for APEC incubator capacity building from multi-dimensional perspectives such as policy incentives, entrepreneurial ecology and capacity building, digital transformation of SMEs, and female entrepreneurship. The important results of the event provide insight into the opportunities and challenges faced by incubators in the Asia-Pacific region in the post-pandemic era, thus benefiting SMEs and helping post-pandemic recovery.

Accordingly, this Symposium is a APEC PPSTI funded project approved in May 2019 and hosted by the Beijing International Exchange Association. In the future, the Beijing International Exchange Association will continue to commit itself to international exchanges and cooperation in scientific and technological innovation, promote sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world, and help economic recovery in the post-pandemic era.