shenzhen launched a recruitment project called the peacock plan to bring in high-tech talent and research teams in 2011, leading to a number of technology companies emerging over the past four years and reshaping the city's high-tech industry.
starting from 2011, the peacock plan has aided 59 research teams in settling in shenzhen, including 24 companies and 35 teams from academic or scientific institutes. most peacock teams specialize in high-tech research fields like electronic information, biomedicine and new-energy technology.
one peacock team, the kuang-chi institute of advanced technology in nanshan district, has received 2,800 patents since it was founded five years ago, accounting for 80 percent of the world’s patents in advanced materials in the past decade.
the institute is developing gas-powered jetpacks and a solar airship with a carrying capacity of up to 30 tons. its manned spacecraft, named traveler, will be able to carry six passengers up to 100 kilometers above the ground and may make space travel for ordinary tourists possible in the future.
meanwhile, about 1,219 people from overseas have been recruited by the peacock plan, with 92 percent of them being students who studied overseas.
official data shows that there were 3,300 companies in shenzhen founded by returned overseas talent by the end of last year, while 130 of them have a yearly output value of over 10 million yuan (us$1.58 million).
as one of the world's largest gene sequencing and analysis centers, the shenzhen-based genomics research institution bgi has recruited several people through the peacock plan.
"bgi is transforming its research center into a startup incubator," said zhu yanmei, the director of the strategic planning committee of bgi.
zhu said shenzhen is the perfect breeding ground for biotech startups with the government's support and a mature industrial chain.
"but the biotech industry still needs an open-source platform to mix hardware, software and wetware resources," zhu added.
the government is supporting peacock teams with financial support. among 14 teams that joined the plan last year, 10 of them settled in local scientific institutes and were offered grants ranging from 15 to 30 million yuan. four other teams operating as companies were given grants of up to 10 million yuan and stock equity worth up to 30 million yuan for each team.
statistics from the city's technology innovation commission show that 60 international pct patents, 2,946 invention patents, 70 utility model patents and 34 design patents have been applied for by peacock teams.
