The Incheon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CEO Lee Han-seop) announced on July 29 that it co-hosted the East Asia Regional Qualifier (Korea) of the "2025 Golden Panda Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition" with the Science, Technology, and Innovation Bureau of the Chengdu Hi-Tech District in China. The event was a great success, with approximately 100 participants, including domestic startups hoping to expand into the Chinese market, investors, and officials from related organizations.
The Golden Panda Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted by the Chengdu City Government and organized by the Chengdu Hi-Tech District, is a global technology startup competition aimed at discovering promising overseas science and technology-based companies and supporting their entry into the Chinese market. Now in its seventh year, the competition will feature preliminary rounds in 10 countries around the world, with the finals scheduled to be held in Chengdu in October. Among the 200 companies that advance to the finals, the winning companies will receive a total prize pool of 300 million won and various follow-up support, including space in the Chengdu Korea-China Innovation Park.
The Korean regional preliminary round has been hosted by the Incheon Center since last year. In its inaugural year in 2024, the event saw the first and largest number of Korean companies win the finals in the competition's history. Buoyed by this success, a total of 91 domestic startups in the electronics, biopharmaceutical, new energy, and materials and components industries applied for this year's preliminary round, demonstrating nearly double the number of applicants compared to the previous year.
Among these, 30 companies were selected through a document evaluation in China and participated in the announcement evaluation on July 29, and among them, 10 companies will secure the right to advance to the finals.
This event went beyond a simple competition and was well-received by participating companies by providing ▲ an introduction to the business environment related to entering Chengdu, ▲ sharing innovative cases of global drone companies based in the Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone, ▲ guidance on entering the Chengdu Korea-China Startup Park, and ▲ a business matching program to help companies explore practical strategies for entering China.
The Incheon Center has established strategic partnerships with key Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, and Shenzhen. Beyond the Golden Panda Competition, the center actively supports market entry through one-on-one business matching with local buyers and follow-up meetings. Recently, the center has also expanded its operations to include expansion programs into global hubs like the US, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Lee Han-seop, CEO of the Incheon Center, said, “This competition is very meaningful in that it provides a foundation for promising Korean startups to strategically enter the Chinese market based on their technological competitiveness,” and added, “We will continue to actively support the overseas expansion and growth potential of Korean startups through various global accelerating programs, including the Golden Panda Competition.”
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