Shanghai expands offshore overseas talent base to Israel

Shanghai's offshore overseas talent base has set up its first foreign service center in Beersheba, Israel.

The Offshore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Talent in China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) is a comprehensive international entrepreneurship platform for overseas talent. It aims to radiate global innovation elements by attracting overseas talent and providing incubation spaces for companies that are registered in the FTZ and operating overseas.

The inauguration of the service center in Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel, reflects the base's ambition to go global.

Israel is widely recognized as an innovation center second only to Silicon Valley in the US owing to its abundant human capital, innovative technology and world-renowned enterprises.

With the inauguration of the Israeli service center, the base will step up multi-layered and all-dimensional cooperation between China and Israel in innovation, entrepreneurship and talent recruitment.

The base serves as a business incubator by providing free office space, entrepreneurship instruction, industrial resources and financing consulting. It can also provide overseas talent with support in visa applications, children's education, housing and healthcare.

It's estimated that there are 188 overseas projects seeking incubation in Shanghai's Pudong New Area. Since it was set up in August 2015, the base has signed cooperation deals with 28 organizations or societies from home and abroad, as well as 16 third-party service agencies.

Pudong is an ideal place for start-ups, as it embraces innovation-driven development, offers a favorable entrepreneurship environment and boasts a technological talent pool, according to Joseph Xie, CEO of Shanghai Quality Sensor Technology Corp, a semi-conductor maker.

The base is now looking to launch more service centers in the US, Germany and other countries. It will also explore a replicable offshore entrepreneurship model to facilitate the incubation of innovative programs.