A kickoff ceremony for the 2022 Qianhai Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held at Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub yesterday morning.

The contest is now open for registration and welcome entrepreneurs from Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to showcase their latest innovations.

The competition has set up 88 awards, including subdivision, final, honorary mentions and individual awards. The prizewinners will share a 7-million-yuan (US$1.04 million) bonus.

Entrepreneurial projects winning the gold, silver and bronze prizes in the final competition will be given priority to settle in startup parks in Qianhai for incubation; teams that advance to the semi-final will receive one-on-one coaching from well-known investors, corporate executives and technical experts; and prizewinners also have the chance to receive angel investment from venture capital institutions sponsoring the competition.

The competition was initiated in 2016 to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and to deepen exchanges among the youths from the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. More than 6,000 startup teams have participated in the contest over the past six years.