Thirty-six startup teams from Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan demonstrated their innovative products and ideas at the 2022 Qianhai Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition final held in Qianhai yesterday evening.

The competition selected two gold-prize winners, four silver-prize winners and six bronze-prize winners, who received 300,000 yuan (US$43,016), 200,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan each, respectively.

In addition, another 18 projects won merit prizes and six projects won five special prizes, including an award for greatest potential, an award for being most popular, an award for development potential, an award for illuminating enterprises and two awards for technological innovation.

Hui Ho, CEO and co-founder of LaSense Technology, the competition’s bronze-prize winner, introduced his project at the ceremony. He said the company mainly uses laser spectroscopy technology to measure carbon elements in industrial and living environments, thus providing accurate data for achieving the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. “Our goal for 2023 is to utilize Qianhai’s talent-oriented policies to introduce more high-end Hong Kong talents to Qianhai,” he said.

Wen Ping, vice director of Qianhai Authority, said in the opening speech that since this year’s contest was launched in May, it has attracted 1,482 startup projects, including 664 from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. “The contest has become an important platform for the exchange and communication among young people from Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan,” she said.