Chinese students head for Enactus World Cup in London

A team of high-flyers from Guangdong Pharmaceutical University will travel to London in September to compete in the Enactus World Cup - the high-tech version of the soccer World Cup.

The university will represent China after winning the national competition with a new technology approach to waste products.

Dell Inc, a multinational computer technology company based in the United States, sponsored the local leg of the global tournament in May.

Innovation and inspiration are the cornerstones of the competition, which was launched by Enactus, an international non-profit organization "dedicated to improving the world through entrepreneurial action among students".

Guangdong Pharmaceutical University will now take on 35 national teams from countries such as Germany, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil in London.

"Dell aims to provide university students and adolescents with the opportunities to change their lives with skills acquired from modern technologies," said Zhou Bing, vice-president of government affairs at Dell China.

Since 2006, the company with its headquarters in Texas, has donated 272 Dell learning centers to primary and middle schools in the country's rural areas, including the western region.

The group also encourages young people to join them right after graduation. Campus recruitment accounts for more than 20 percent of employees, which is rare among companies, according to Dell.

Naturally, it takes its corporate social responsibilities seriously.

Plans are already underway for more than 75 percent of its staff to take part in community services by 2020.

"Last year, slightly more than 26,000 employees contributed 810,000 hours of community service. Since 2013, the total has exceeded 2.2 million hours," Dell said in a statement.

As for Enactus, it operates in 36 countries worldwide.

A total of 270 universities and more than 16,000 students took part in the tournament here.

Students worked on 1,126 projects, covering subjects such as sustainable development, rural development, women economic empowerment and cultural inheritance. Entrepreneurship was another key area.

At the end of the academic year, Enactus teams present their projects at regional competitions.

The winners go through to the national tournament and the projects are judged by senior executives from the business world.

Zhou Wenxia, a professor of human resource management at Renmin University of China in Beijing, stressed that innovation was vital in the modern world and praised competitions that can foster this spirit.

"China's new generation will create unprecedented business development models and technological breakthroughs in various areas," said Zhou. "These will include sectors such as organic farming and energy-saving solutions."

Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn and zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn