The 5th “Maker Shantou” Competition achieved an increase in both the quantity and quality of participating projects
Recently, the 8th “Maker Guangdong” Shantou Small and Medium sized Enterprise Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the 5th “Maker Shantou” Competition Finals were held. After nearly two months of intense competition, 24 companies and maker teams stood out and met in the finals, competing together on the track of new quality productivity.
There is a noteworthy detail in this competition: both the quantity and quality of the participating projects have been improved. To some extent, these small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of Shantou’s future development of new quality productivity. Nowadays, Shantou is firmly committed to the path of “building the city with industry and strengthening the city with industry”. The development of industries and technological changes cannot be separated from the forging ahead of creating new types of enterprises.
How to bring more new industries, new models, and new driving forces to the forefront? How to promote the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation? In the competition, numerous Shantou enterprises provided the best answers with their strength and achievements.
Click ‘number’ to turn into gold
Farmers have new support
Data itself is valuable. “In the view of Lin Shusheng, General Manager of Guangdong Yiqi Computer Software Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as” Yiqi Software “), in recent years, the country has made a series of new deployments to accelerate the construction of Digital China and implemented the” Data Element X “three-year action plan, which has sent a good signal to relevant enterprises in the data field. Under the overarching theme of creating new quality productivity, data elements serve as new production factors and the foundation for developing the digital economy.
Riding on this momentum, the team has keenly observed the technological changes in digital transformation, focusing on the field of data element governance and conducting research on innovative applications of data fusion for the government industry. In this year’s “Maker Shantou” competition, Yiqi Software’s project “Focusing on the Modernization of Marine Pasture in Shen’ao Town, Improving the Supervision and Financing Resistance of Marine Fisheries Industry” has also achieved good results and will represent Shantou in the provincial competition.
The value of data cannot be realized without application scenarios. Pain points come from the front line of the industry, and the answer also lies in the front line of the industry. Shen’ao Town in Nan’ao County is nestled by mountains and the sea, with abundant marine fishery resources. Since the beginning of this stage, with the deepening of rural revitalization and the “Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Project”, local farmers need more financial support to expand their breeding scale. However, the problems of difficult credit and low loan accessibility have been restricting development.
The main root cause of the problem lies in the difficulty of financial institutions to timely grasp the health status of farmers’ breeding operations, and the lack of objective and real data to support farmers’ special loans. “Lin Shusheng told reporters that after understanding the demand in this regard, Yiqi Software combined public data from Shen’ao Town with data from the offshore aquaculture industry to carry out public data operation pilot projects in inclusive finance scenarios, providing data support for bank credit and helping farmers obtain financial support.
As the first aquaculture industry health index data product in eastern Guangdong, it uses raw data from government departments and follows the principle of “raw data is not out of domain, data is available but not visible”. It utilizes network security technologies such as privacy computing to ensure data privacy and compliance. Through calculation and analysis models, it calculates the score of the health status of farmers and reflects their health status based on the score.
Through this data index, financial institutions can real-time grasp the objective business health situation of farmers, and promote the fine management of credit business in the Shenzhen Macao aquaculture industry. Lin Shusheng pointed out that this effectively leverages the market value of data elements, enhances the accessibility of credit for farmers, reduces their credit and financial risks, further accelerates their capital increase and production expansion, and helps promote the high-quality development of aquaculture in Shen’ao Town.
At the end of last year, this data product developed by Yiqi Software entered the Guangzhou Data Exchange, and the company became the first enterprise in Shantou to be awarded the title of “Guangdong Data Broker”. In Lin Shusheng’s view, the application scenarios of this data product are far beyond this field. He hopes to fully leverage the innovative engine role of data elements, promote the deep integration of data elements with various industrial fields, and continue to explore the reform path of the integration and development of the real economy and digital economy.
Driven by ‘new’
Deeply cultivating technology and opening up new markets
Plastic is ubiquitous in our daily lives. But this ordinary plastic, after injecting technological elements, can exhibit different comprehensive properties. At Shantou Mingfa Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Mingfa Machinery”), Vice General Manager Liu Siqi showed reporters the differences of plastic products produced with company equipment – better hardness, more uniform patterns, and more stable quality.
For nearly 30 years since its establishment, Mingfa Machinery has been committed to the research and development of plastic extrusion and thermoforming technology. At the “Maker Shantou” competition, the company’s “Multi module High speed Stacking Conveyor Integrated Thermoforming Equipment” developed and produced has been favored by many judges.
What are the technological advantages of this device? Liu Siqi told reporters that taking the breakthrough of multi module technology as an example, by optimizing module design, the company has successfully achieved a production capacity of 77 cups in a single molding process. Compared with the mainstream equipment in the market, which has 66 cups, the production efficiency has been significantly improved. The key difficulty lies in ensuring a high degree of fit between the upper and lower blades to stably cut simultaneously and ensure a scrap rate far below the industry average. Liu Siqi proudly said that their technology is in a leading position in this field.
Focusing on the two core elements of improving production efficiency and saving costs, this equipment launched by Mingfa Machinery has significantly reduced the equipment footprint through integrated design, with a reduction of up to 45%. At the same time, integrated system integration not only makes operations safer and more efficient, but also effectively avoids security risks that may arise from system incompatibility. In addition, considering only labor costs, with the support of high-speed stacking and integrated technology, each device can save the enterprise about 600000 yuan in expenses annually.
In the fiercely competitive hot forming market, Mingfa Machinery relies on its “priority overseas” strategy to establish itself in the market with outstanding performance, high cost-effectiveness, and technological leadership, and continuously expand its territory. In 1996, Mingfa Machinery opened the door to enter the Indonesian market and subsequently participated in local exhibitions for over 20 years, quickly occupying the Indonesian market and extending to the entire Southeast Asia. At present, Mingfa Machinery Equipment is exported to more than 30 countries and regions around the world, with overseas sales accounting for nearly 70%, half of which come from the Southeast Asian market.
In fact, Mingfa Machinery, which started with single screw granulation and sheet extrusion equipment, developed the first hydraulic thermoforming hot preparation on the market in the 1990s and has become a well-known equipment enterprise in the industry through long-term technological research and development. Nowadays, with the continuous progress of enterprises, Mingfa Machinery has also injected more fresh blood. In 2018, Liu Siqi, who returned from studying abroad, gradually took over the company and was responsible for overall operation and management, officially becoming a “second-generation entrepreneur”.
Regarding the company’s future plans, Liu Siqi revealed that Mingfa Machinery is strengthening intellectual property protection and brand building. On the one hand, it plans to establish a free research and development base, form a professional team, and establish an intellectual property protection system that is in line with the industry’s actual situation. Through talent development, it will ensure the long-term development of the company; On the other hand, it promotes the transformation of the company from an equipment manufacturer to a service provider, providing comprehensive services including factory planning, customized equipment, and product production, helping customers reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Specialized, refined, and innovative
Showcasing innovative new driving forces
Specialized, refined, innovative enterprises are an important force in developing new quality productivity. This competition focuses on “specialized, refined, innovative” and mobilizes specialized, refined, innovative and manufacturing enterprises through multiple channels to participate. This year’s competition attracted a total of 208 projects to participate, an increase of nearly 16% compared to the previous session, including 7 small giant enterprises and 62 provincial-level specialized, refined, and new enterprises.
This competition also highlights the deep cooperation between Shenzhen and Shantou, inviting multiple financial investment institutions and expert judges from Shenzhen to join the competition, leveraging the support and service role of financial capital in entrepreneurship and innovation, and promoting the deepening and implementation of Shenzhen Shantou cooperation. During the competition, contestants conducted an 8-minute roadshow and a 4-minute defense. The judges of the competition provided guidance and comments on each project, and put forward reasonable suggestions to help the team improve project quality and enhance project competitiveness.
In the end, Shantou Best Technology Co., Ltd. won the enterprise group gold award for the development of nano roughness functional masterbatch and its industrial application in the fields of nanomicroelectronics and new energy thin films, and Shantou University won the maker group gold award for the project of “Innovative Breeding Technology to Build a ‘Golden Scallop’ Variety Library”. A total of 12 outstanding projects were selected to represent Shantou in the provincial competition.
We will fully leverage the comprehensive effects of the city competition and make it a ‘golden calling card’ for the innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises, “said Lin Xibo, Deputy Director of the Shantou Industry and Information Technology Bureau. The Maker Guangdong Shantou Competition is an important event for Shantou to promote the concept of ‘double innovation’, and is also a comprehensive service platform that integrates multiple functions of double innovation, such as technology exchange, achievement display, funding docking, industry services, and project landing, creating a good atmosphere for mass entrepreneurship and innovation. This year’s competition has strong guidance, great influence, and good results, which has sparked a wave of competition among small and medium-sized enterprises in the city. The “Maker Shantou” competition has had an impact and quality year by year, demonstrating the innovative power of Shantou.
As an important part of “Maker China”, the Maker Shantou Competition has attracted nearly 800 outstanding projects since its inception in 2020, inviting nearly 50 local leading enterprises to participate and proposing nearly 70 innovative needs, promoting the integrated development of large, medium and small enterprises. At the same time, multiple participating projects have been connected with Shantou enterprises and universities, achieving preliminary cooperation. One project has won the national first prize in the professional competition of China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and two excellent projects have won the national second prize in the “Maker China” special competition, injecting new vitality into Shantou’s innovation and entrepreneurship environment and promoting the further release and development of new quality productivity.
Post time: May-30-2025
