Cooperating with the IEEE to Speed up the Internationalization of IT Businesses in HSP

Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park is China's first experimental zone of hi-tech industry and the biggest national hi-tech industry park where currently over 10 thousand businesses are located, of which IT businesses account for 70%. On October 20, 2004, the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park signed a strategic cooperative agreement with the IEEE-CS, with a view to improving the innovation capabilities of the IT businesses in the park, boosting the industry to keep up with the international standards, speeding up the internationalization progress of the IT businesses in the park, and forging the first-rate world-class hi-tech park for scientific researches and developments.

Under this agreement, the IEEE-CS will fully cooperate with Haidian Science Park in such projects as software development certification, e-library of Association for Computing Machinery, and distance education. Haidian Science Park will provide basic necessities for special agencies and working environments, help the association conduct such activities as consultation, training, inspection, exchange and exhibition, and will also hammer out methods and polices whereby to provide complementary services to the businesses. This cooperation integrates the resources of both parties, makes use of each other's advantages, and is conducive to further boosting Haidian Science Park to become a more advanced science park with a wider scope in the field of sciences. The cooperation will help Haidian Science Park keep up with developments at the most forefront of world science and technology, and tap the international market, will help improve the qualities and expertise of the technical talents in the park, and upgrade their products. Therefore, the Haidian District Government and the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park attach great importance to the full cooperation between the two strong partners.  Zhou Liangluo, chief executive of Haidian District hopes it is possible to achieve practical results through the cooperation between Haidian Science Park and the IT giant, and to introduce necessary technologies and talents in an effort to improve the innovation capabilities of Haidian Science Park. Yu Jun, deputy mayor of Haidian District has taken charge of all the negotiations for the cooperation, has instructed the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park to formulate corresponding polices, and has taken each and every possible measure to carry out the cooperative agreements.

In April, 2005, the Haidian Science Park and the IEEE-CS jointly conducted a successful online investigation. The investigation aimed to enhance mutual understanding, get to know whether the businesses in the Park are interested in cooperating with the IEEE, how much they know about the IEEE, and to know the actual proficiencies and requirements of the technical personnel, thereby formulating feasibility plans to tackle specific problems before implementing specific cooperative events.

To create the first-rate world-class science park, the first-rate world-class talents are necessary. Therefore, initiating the CSDP certification program in Haidian Science Park becomes one of the key cooperative projects between the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park and the IEEE-CS. This program aims to exemplarily train a group of qualified senor software professionals for IT and software businesses in Haidian Science Park, in a bid to boost the businesses in the park to keep up with the international standards, to help software businesses to improve their technical innovation capabilities and management levels, thereby speeding up the effort to create the first-rate world-class science park within ten years. To help the businesses in this program, the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park adopts an incentive policy and financially supports trainees from the businesses in the park who receive CSDP certification training. Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) is the international professional certificate issued to software professionals worldwide by the IEEE-CS, an internationally authoritative agency in computer science. The certificate stands for the standard of senior professionals in the international software industry. So far, over five hundred professionals worldwide have passed the certification and obtained the certificate which is called an international pass in the software profession and much sought after by software professionals. However, as the certificate stands for a high standard and a kind of cutting-edge technology, and it is difficult to obtain, very few people are courageous enough to have a try.  Upon signature of cooperative agreement with the IEEE-CS, from December, 2005 to June, 2006, the Administrative Committee of Haidian Science Park, held the first CSDP training class. 11 candidates participated in the certification, and 6 of them passed. As there was no CSDP certification in China during the previous three years, the training class filled in this gap, and initiated CSDP certification in China, laying a solid foundation for training senior software talents in China.

Haidian Science Park is successfully conducting cooperation with the IEEE-CS, which will boost the development of China's software industry, and will in particular promote China's software industry to follow the international practices.