Japanese entrepreneurs laud Hangzhou's investment climate

A delegation of 30 entrepreneurs from Japan embarked on a visit to Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province from March 4 to 7 amid efforts to seek investment opportunities and forge partnership.

The delegation, composed of entrepreneurs from well-established Japanese institutes and startups, toured a few Hangzhou hi-tech companies, including the e-commerce giant Aliababa Group and Chinese fintech Zhejiang LianLian Technology Co as well as an overseas high-caliber talent entrepreneurial and innovation base.

The delegates were impressed by the convenience of Alibaba's online payment system Alipay and the rich innovative working atmosphere in the city.

"Hangzhou has cultivated many successful innovative startups and its people are receptive to new ideas," said an entrepreneur from a Japanese startup company, adding that he has discovered many new things during the trip, including the classified dustbins driven by artificial intelligence (AI), mobile payment, sharing bikes and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Hangzhou is a city which honors innovative achievements and advances AI applications, he said, who hoped to spot new business opportunities for his hi-tech products in elderly care sectors.

As a major part of the exchange trip, a matchmaking meeting between Japanese startups and Hangzhou counterparts were also held on the sideline on March 5.

"Hangzhou boasts large amount of private companies and is active in private capitals. I'm confident that we will find outstanding cooperation partners in the city," said a representative from Japanese hardware startup Makers Boot Camp.

In a historical period of "post-G20-Summit and pre-Asian-Games", Hangzhou enjoys more development opportunities shoulders more responsibilities than ever before and welcomes overseas companies to invest and develop, according to an official from Hangzhou Investment promotion Bureau who was present at the meeting.