Zhongguancun Development Group and Mizuho Bank of Japan signed a strategic cooperation agreement at Zhongguancun Software Park on Friday.

Zhao Changshan, board chairman of Zhongguancun Development Group, ZDG General Manager Xuan Hong, President of Mizuho Bank Fujiwara Koji, Chairman of Mizuho Bank (China) Oka Toyoki and the bank's General Manager Takeda Kazushi visited Zhongguancun Software Park and attended the signing ceremony.

Zhao said at the event that Zhongguancun Development Group has always been committed to providing entrepreneurs with global and full-chain innovation and entrepreneurship services with Zhongguancun characteristics.

By cooperating with Mizuho Bank, Zhongguancun Development Group can serve as a bridge for cooperation between Chinese startups and established Japanese companies. Meanwhile, Zhongguancun welcomes Japanese technology service agencies and industry incubators to cooperate with Zhongguancun to internationalize and upgrade the startup services of ZGC.

Fujiwara Koji pointed out that Japan, as the third largest economy in the world, is one of its most important sources of technological innovation.

As one of the top two financial institutions in Japan, Mizuho Financial Group has business dealings with nearly 70 percent of the country’s listed companies and was one of the first foreign banks to set up branches in China.

Having nearly one hundred branches outside Japan, Mizuho Bank's global distribution system and financial strength will provide channels and financial guarantees for the overseas expansion of Zhongguancun technology enterprises.

The two parties will seize the opportunity presented by this agreement to promote cooperation in investment, financial and other businesses in China and to jointly create an innovation ecosystem of Zhongguancun technologies.

In recent years, Zhongguancun Development Group brought together global innovation resources, increased international innovation cooperation, and built cross-border incubation networks including overseas scientists, new research institutions in Zhongguancun, and transformation of innovative and technological achievements.

The group also set up the Zhongguancun Silicon Valley Innovation Center in the core area of Silicon Valley, and gradually expanded its businesses to North America and Europe, establishing an international innovation network hub covering regions rich in global innovation resources.

In 2018, ZDG actively promoted the establishment of the China-Finland Innovation Fund and built a diversified overseas fund system to improve the business model of ”incubation plus investment”.

The group also explored ways of serving the international construction of Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Future Science City and the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and encouraged more high-quality projects to get involved in the innovation and development of Zhongguancun.

With the establishment of a new innovation center in collaboration with the Technology Transfer Center of the Weitzmann Institute of Israel in Beijing, ZDG's connections with overseas innovation resources were further enhanced.