A talent recruitment activity for optoelectronics companies in Yiwu was held online in Yiwu. This is a part of Jinhua’s program to promote an open competition mechanism to select the best candidates to undertake key research projects for the 2 + 4 + X industries* of Jinhua.

At the online conference, Yiwu’s companies in optoelectronics, smart equipment, new materials, and more, addressed their technical needs. The representatives of five optoelectronic companies—Zhejiang Danse Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Oulide Precision Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Inteled Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., Yiwu Qingyue Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., and Hexie Mingxin Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd.—conducted online roadshows demonstrating their technical needs. Experts and professors from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and other colleges and universities introduced their teams and their scientific and technological achievements, and communicated with the representatives of the five companies online.

In recent years, Yiwu has focused on high-quality development of the optoelectronics industry and introduced 25 major projects, with an investment of more than 500 million RMB each, including 5 projects with an investment of over 10 billion RMB each. The total agreed-upon investment in the projects is more than 100 bn RMB. Among them, 19 projects have been put into operation or partially put into operation. After all projects are completed, the annual output value will be nearly 150 bn RMB. Two major industrial clusters, those of semiconductor luminescence and photovoltaic devices, have taken shape in Yiwu. Yiwu has set up 2 academician workstations and 5 postdoctoral workstations in the optoelectronics industry, introduced 4 full-time high-level talents at or above the provincial and ministerial levels and 6 part-time academicians, and gathered over 300 talents with doctoral degrees.

Moreover, Yiwu has built a service complex for the innovation of Zhejiang’s information and optoelectronic industries. The research institute of HC Semitek Corporation in Yiwu for third-generation semiconductor materials and devices has been approved as a Zhejiang provincial key laboratory, and it has obtained 52 overseas patents and 302 domestic invention patents. Yiwu’s global photovoltaic joint innovation center has introduced 1 provincial-level high-level talent, 10 Ph.D. holders, and 85 master’s degree holders; obtained 21 authorized invention patents; applied for 167 invention patents; and engaged in R&D cooperation with 10 well-known companies in the photovoltaic supply chain, as well as with 5 scientific research institutions at home and abroad. The supply chains have gathered more than 25,000 workers in Yiwu, and the number will exceed 40,000 in the next three years. From January to April 2022, companies above the designated size in the optoelectronics innovation town of the economic development zone in Yiwu achieved a total industrial output value of 27.34 bn RMB, an increase of 165.9% year-on-year.

Yiwu has vigorously explored new mechanisms for talent introduction and new modes for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The open competition mechanism to select the best candidates to undertake key research projects has been successful. The mechanism ensures the normal and long-term operation of a system where “companies address problems, the government caters to the problems, and collaborative global innovation resources solve the problems.” In addition, this system builds a bridge for the technical communication between Yiwu’s companies and global talents, and promotes the efficient transformation of companies. To date, Yiwu has elicited more than 600 technical problems from over 1500 companies. After selection, 360 key technical requirements have been addressed in three batches, of which 80 have received responses, involving a total investment of more than 60 m RMB.

Next, Yiwu will continue to focus on the key problems of industrial development, further promote the talent introduction mechanism, facilitate communication between companies and colleges and universities, solve common problems in the industry, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading.

(By Wang Ting, translated by Jin Haiqiong, edited by Kendra Fiddler)

Translator’s note: the “2 + 4 + X industries” of Jinhua means Jinhua will focus on the transformation and upgrading of two traditional industries: textiles and apparel, and hardware manufacturing; expand and enhance four emerging industries: optoelectronics, new energy vehicles and parts, high-end equipment manufacturing, and biomedicine; and strive to cultivate several industries of the future such as quantum computing.