In 2019, a very successful startup competition in Singapore was organised by Cloudbae, a subsidiary of The Alibaba Group.

In 2020, the China-Asean New Smart City Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition is back again. It aims to bring together the best smart city innovative ideas from startups across China and the Asean countries. It also strives to offer the best smart city Startups access to highly strategic networks, turn ideas into sought-after solutions, and opportunities to break into new markets

The wider objective is to provide a sustainable inroad to China’s market for the most promising startups.

In 2019, some of the Start-Up finalists were connected to the Chinese Health Authorities, MNCs in the technology and commodities industries to name a few, and one team was also offered a one year contract of free accommodation & office space to develop their idea in Nanning, Guang Xi, China.

Held 100% virtual this year, the launch of this competition will be on 16 Sep 2020, 10:30am via live from social media platforms. All startups are welcomed to submit their application for the competition via the website – http://nnsmarter.cn/?view_name=sing

The application process will take 4 weeks until the ASEAN Division Preliminaries will be held from 19-20 Oct 2020 to select the top 16 teams for the Grand Finals.

The Grand Finals, held in China on 5 Nov, will be televised live from Nanning, Guang Xi, China to millions of television viewers. Singapore will host the Regional Preliminaries in the middle of October 2020 virtually.

This competition is the brainchild of the Nanning Municipal D&R Commission, and Nanning Foreign Affairs Office Government. It is organized by CloudBae, the 2B compass Pte. Ltd, *SCAPE Co. Ltd Singapore, and Singapore University of Social Sciences.

“We curate the more suitable startups in the region for the future of smart cities and enable them to have a inroad to China market” – Caleb Low, founder of 2B Compass

“ We are very excited to be the bridge between the regional startups to China. This competition is the springboard to tapping into the huge China market regardless of the size of your idea” – Caleb Low, the 2B compass.

“Through partnership with CloudBae and regional competition like China-Asean New Smart City
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition 2020, *SCAPE hopes to promote innovation and creativity amongst youths while providing an avenue for Asia-ready regional exposure.” – Ivy Lim, Executive Director, *SCAPE.

“The competition offers valuable resources for students to kickstart their venture or expand their startup into the region. Working closely with our partners in ASEAN and China, we hope to provide the opportunity for international networking and hone students’ skills to be world-ready.” – Ellen Goel, Head of Entrepreneurship Programme, Singapore University of Social Sciences

There will be two categories of the Competition.

• Comprehensive Startup Category
  • For established startups working on smart city solutions with MVP and traction
• Open Startup Category
  • For students and teams with early-stage smart city ideas. No MVP is required.

About Cloudbae:

• Cloudbae is a big data industry company established with a “light asset, platform, mixed ownership” approach. Shareholder companies such as Guangxi Group Co., Ltd., Nanning Rail Transit Group, and Alibaba Cloud’s DT Dreams joined hands to commit to the construction and operation of a smart Nanning city, to promote the interconnection and sharing of information among cities in Guangxi, and to strengthen cooperation with cities in ASEAN countries To build the Digital Silk Road together.
• The new smart city is an important part of the construction of the China-ASEAN Information Port and an important platform for China and ASEAN countries to jointly build the “Digital Silk Road”. Cloud Baby Big Data Industry Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Cloud Baby”) was established on March 28, 2017.

About Nanning Government:

• The capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
• Population of 7.7m
• The venue of the annual China-ASEAN Expo
• The core city of Beibu Gulf Economic Zone
• The gateway city of China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative
• Nanning is setting the Smart City benchmark in China & ASEAN to attract Internet enterprises, promote the development of new industrial agglomeration, upgrade traditional industries, and foster new functions of industrial development

About the 2B compass Pte Ltd

the 2B compass helps Sales & Business leaders connect better and influence more, so that they can be a #GreaterSignificance to society. We believe everyone who has the ability to impact lives deserves the chance to get their message heard.

Technology and Social Media has connected the world at a pace never seen before. However, as the world became more connected, people and customers also started becoming socially disconnected. As a result, we strive to Re-think, Re-strategise and Re-Plan how businesses communicate with their audiences.

We offer Coaching, Training and Speaking services on topics like Branding, Leadership, Social Media strategy & Communications to inspire business to communicate with their audiences differently.

With a focus on building a strong relationship between organisation and its audience, they will be in a position to Inspire, Influence and Impact.

About *SCAPE Co. Ltd

*SCAPE Co. Ltd is a non-profit organisation with its mission and vision rooted in support of youth, talent and leadership development. The organisation aims to facilitate youth-oriented programmes and support within various communities of youth interest in Singapore. The youth of today will be inspired and empowered to DREAM IT AND LIVE IT at *SCAPE!

*SCAPE exists to serve and support youths to live their dreams and realise their full potentials. As the integrated talent and resource hub for young people in Singapore, *SCAPE offers a holistic network of programmes, communities, partners and facilities for youths to explore, create and strive. No dream is too small, no dream is too big. *SCAPE wants youths to be inspired to come forward and share their interests, share their dreams. Through guidance and facilitation, *SCAPE wants to see their dreams turn into ideas, and ideas into reality. Living their dreams should no longer be a dream at *SCAPE.

About SUSS

SUSS is a university with a rich heritage in providing lifelong, learner-centric and industry-relevant education. Our mission is to champion lifelong education to develop future thinkers and leaders to their fullest potential through our 3H’s education philosophy – ‘Head’ for professional competency with applied knowledge, ‘Heart’ for social awareness of the needs of the society, and ‘Habit’ for passion towards lifelong learning.

We offer more than 70 undergraduate and graduate programmes, available in full- and part-time study modes which are flexible, modular and multi-faceted in learning experience to cater to both fresh school leavers and adult learners. We also launched a broad range of continuing education and training modular courses for the professional skills and knowledge upgrading of our workforce.

Our programmes and courses are made available through our five schools:

• S R Nathan School of Human Development
• School of Business
• School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences
• School of Law
• School of Science and Technology

To date, over 35,000 graduates have chosen SUSS as their university of choice. Each year, about 15,000 students are pursuing their full- and part-time studies with us.

From 1 April 2019, the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) became an autonomous institute of SUSS. Both entities enable a synergistic collaboration as IAL brings to SUSS its expertise and experience in adult learning and Continuing Education and Training (CET), while SUSS provides an ecosystem of resources and experts rooted in academic rigour.

For more information on SUSS, please visit www.suss.edu.sg.