Participants of the Yangtze River Delta Women's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit pose for a photo in Nantong City, East China's Jiangsu Province. [Jiangsu Women's Federation]

The Yangtze River Delta Women's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit, titled Women's Strength in the New Era, kicked off on October 26 in Nantong City, East China's Jiangsu Province.

The summit was designed to further stimulate the innovative development of women entrepreneurs in the Yangtze River Delta and the region's high-quality and integrated development. The event also allowed outstanding women entrepreneurs, investors, scientific and technological workers and representatives of women's federations in the Yangtze River Delta to gather together to seek business opportunities, cooperation and common development.

At the meeting, senior women entrepreneurs delivered keynote speeches on women's development and self-value fulfillment, the high-quality innovation and development of enterprises, and new industrial development models in the Yangtze River Delta. Budding entrepreneurs showed their start-up projects and shared their perspectives.

A roundtable forum was held to discuss how women entrepreneurs can shoulder their responsibilities and achieve innovation and breakthroughs in the context of the national strategy of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, with particular reference to the nation's new economic development pattern of "dual circulation," in which domestic and overseas markets complement and reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

In November 2018, led by the Shanghai Women's Federation, the women's federations at provincial level in the region issued a three-year action plan centering on the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

In June this year, an initiative to promote the participation of women entrepreneurs in the integrated and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta was released in Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, East China's Zhejiang Province.

In September, a campaign to energize women's roles in rural revitalization was launched in Nanjing City, Jiangsu, giving full play to the role of homestay hotels in poverty alleviation work and the building of a well-off society.

At the summit, an alliance of women entrepreneurs in the Yangtze River Delta was established to build a new platform for women start-ups to draw on each other's strengths, share resources and innovate through collaboration.

An alliance of women entrepreneurs in the Yangtze River Delta is established at the summit on October 26 in Nantong City, East China's Jiangsu Province. [Jiangsu Women's Federation]

Su Weiwei, President of Taizhou Association of Women Entrepreneurs and chairperson of a biopharmaceutical company, said that the alliance will open a new channel for women entrepreneurs to contribute to the high-quality and integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

"In the context of the regional integration, more and more women are willing to cross the region and go beyond their boundaries," said Sun Ying, Director of Zhejiang Association of Women Entrepreneurs and founder and general manager of a science and technology company, adding that she is grateful to the women's federation for its attention and support to women entrepreneurs in the new era.

Women entrepreneurs will keep the original aspiration in mind and forge ahead to increase their presence in China's business ecosystem, Sun concluded.

The summit was co-hosted by women's federations and women entrepreneurs' associations of East China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and Shanghai Municipality, and Nantong Municipal Party Committee and Government.

The data shows that in Shanghai, 52.6 percent of all college students are women; in Zhejiang, more than 70 percent of entrepreneurs in the Internet field are women; in Jiangsu, senior and intermediate women professionals occupy over 43.5 percent of the total; and the proportion of women employees in Anhui remains above 45 percent.

The statistics also reveal that entrepreneurship and employment rates among women in the Yangtze River Delta region are rising. Women are showcasing the spirit of self-improvement and bringing increased contributions to economic and social development in the area.

(Source: Jiangsu Women's Federation/Translated and edited by Women of China)