In order to implement the four proposals and nine programs put forward in the keynote speech by President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and to actively undertake the tasks related to the FOCAC Dakar Action Plan (2022-2024), the Department of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, the China Science and Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC), and the Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province intend to jointly organize "2023 China-Africa Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition". The details are pre-notified as follows:

I.     Theme and Content

With the theme of "Scientific and Technological Innovation Contributing to the Sustainable Development of China-Africa Cooperation", in the field of Big Health and Modern Agriculture (Wuhan Division), it will further stimulate the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship of Chinese and African youth, expand the space for cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship, create a platform for exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African youth, and boost China-Africa economic development and people-to-people exchanges.

(I)   Hosted by:

Department of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, China Science and Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC), and Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province

(II)  Organized by: China-Africa Innovation Cooperation Center

(III) Co-organized by: Wuhan University of Science and Technology

II.    Registration

(I)   Participants can register for the competition from the date of the pre-notice. Participants should send the registration form to the designated email address before September 30, 2023.

(II)  Participants should be citizens of China and African countries under the age of 40 (born after January 1, 1983) and abide by the laws and regulations of China and the nationality state. The communication language of the competition is Chinese or English. Participants can be individuals or teams.

III.   Qualification

(I)   Participants can enter the competition with the following two categories of projects: (1) Projects planned to be or have been implemented in African countries; (2) Projects planned to be or have been implemented in China. For the projects planned to be or have been implemented in China, the participants should be citizens of African countries or teams that include citizens of African countries.

(II)  In principle, the participating projects should be start-up projects with the operating conditions for establishing a company, or start-ups operated by micro, small and medium-sized scientific and technological enterprises registered in China or Africa after January 1, 2018.

IV.  Time of Event

(I)   Semi-final: From October 23, 2023 to October 24, 2023; the semi-final in the field of big health and modern agriculture will be held in Wuhan, and the specific venue and time of the competition will be notified separately.

(II)  Final: From November 8, 2023 to November 9, 2023; Wuhan; the specific venue and time of the competition will be notified separately. The finalists (individuals and teams) will be invited to Wuhan in November to participate in the final, and conduct the roadshow and defense of the project online and offline.

V.    Cautions

(I)   Each participating team should prepare PPT or other materials required for the roadshow and defense of the project, and the overall time should be controlled at about 10 minutes.

(II)  The relevant registration information should be filled in truthfully. The materials such as business license, patent certificate, certificate of awards & honors, and authentication materials can be attached together with the registration form and sent to the designated email address for registration, with the name in the form of "Project Name + Nationality (Africa)".

Contact Information:

Big Health and Modern Agriculture Field

Co-organized by: Wuhan University of Science and Technology

Contact: Wang Xiang; Tel.: 027-68862606

Email (to receive the project information): 1142454593@qq.com

China-Africa Innovation Cooperation Center

Contacts: Yang Ye and Wang Siqian

Tel.: 027-87310267

Attachment

Registration Form for 2023 China-Africa Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

Note: The materials such as business license, patent certificate, certificate of awards & honors, and authentication materials can be sent as attachments.