Taizhou registered 26,334 new small and micro enterprises in 2017. To better meet their needs, the city has launched an online entrepreneurial park for the companies.

Also known as Taizhou micro think-tank, it uses “Internet+” to break down spatial barriers for small and micro enterprises, making them able to share the resources of industrial parks.

Taizhou micro think-tank was jointly launched by Taizhou small and micro business office, Taizhou market supervision bureau and Taizhou private enterprise association. It is collaboratively operated by Taizhou Peking University Science Park.

As the first online platform for incubating small and micro enterprises, Taizhou micro think-tank provides R&D, design, testing, technical consultation and channel expansion through integrating the resources of enterprises, government departments and scientific research institutions.

The platform offers six main functions: events, services, policies, online classes, cloud space and guides.

The policies function has policy interpretation and new policies for startups. The cloud space, as the most important part for platform incubation, includes the sharing of startup stories and meeting room rental.

These services were originally provided by Taizhou’s small and micro industrial parks for its settled enterprises but the operation of the platform now means that small and micro enterprises can also enjoy them, according to Xiang Xianping, assistant general manager of Taizhou Peking University Science Park.

“Taizhou has a large number of small and micro enterprises but the quantity of industrial parks or science parks are very limited. We hope to promote virtual incubation through this platform to allow more enterprises to enjoy services and share resources,” Xiang said.

By looking at annual reports and the development status of small and micro enterprises on the micro think-tank, government departments will learn more about the enterprises’ needs in terms of relevant policies and be able to provide more targeted support.

Enterprises registered on the micro think-tank include service-orientated enterprises providing financial and legal services as well as common small and micro enterprises. Service-orientated enterprises should provide relevant information about the enterprises when they register while common enterprises can directly register online by searching Taizhou micro think-tank via the official website or Wechat account.

“We aim to attract 50 service institutions and 20,000 small and micro enterprises to settle here by the end of this year,” Xiang said, adding that they have an elimination mechanism to choose high quality institutions for the platform.