Making a difference

Power of Youth conference to bring together entrepreneurs from China, European Union

Adam Purvis, founder of the Power of Youth, which will hold a five-day conference in Tianjin later this year, providing a platform for Chinese and European young entrepreneurs to discuss ideas. [Provided to China Dailly]

A new enterprise is hoping to spark greater collaboration between young Chinese and European entrepreneurs. The Power of Youth will host a conference in Tianjin later this year in which top young entrepreneurs from all 27 EU member states will meet their Chinese counterparts to discuss everything from collaborative projects to economic policy.

"The Power of Youth is about taking young people who are really good at generating financial capital, and using them to inspire others and drive collaboration which can turn their ideas into action," says Adam Purvis, founder of the project.

It is hoped that the five-day conference in Tianjin, which runs alongside an EU-China Year of Youth event which will be attended by Premier Wen Jiabao, will not only provide an environment for Europe and China's top young entrepreneurs to discuss ideas, but also lead on to the development of new businesses.

"Put young entrepreneurs in a room together and they will find opportunities and turn them into businesses. I believe European and Chinese entrepreneurs have really complementary skill sets. We are very different but it's in these differences that we find areas we can collaborate and both grow."

Purvis hopes to take the model worldwide, with India next on the agenda in 2012. But he chose to begin with China because of his own personal experience in the country, as well as the potential he sees for collaboration between European and Chinese businesses.

"I've worked in China before, designing cars and teaching in a university over there. I learnt that once you've broken down the barriers and created genuine friendships and genuine dialogue, then what we can accomplish together is so much greater than what we can accomplish individually.

"We have received such a warm reception from the Chinese side. There are such obvious reasons on both sides to just open up our markets to each other. I am doing my best to hammer down all those barriers that have been put up by generations before us. I'm a great believer that individual relationships can do that."

Another European hoping to forge such relationships is Petr Hyl from the Czech Republic. Hyl already has experience in China, being chairman of the China Investment Forum, a network that supports investment between Europe and China. Previously he had founded an educational company that operated across the Czech Republic and Slovakia.