On 27 November, Wang Lifeng, Chair of China New Entrepreneur Development Program, delivered a keynote speech titled “Seek Harmony from Differences for Constant Growth” at the Culture, Education, and Tourism Development Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Dear dignitaries and distinguished guests,
Good afternoon! I'm very glad to have been invited to the Asia Youth Leaders Forum. We have been looking forward to the forum for a long time, since last year. This is an unusual experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has made today's forum more precious.

The theme of my speech is "Seek Harmony from Differences for Constant Growth". Talking about entrepreneurship, I want you to think about the entrepreneurship of the previous generation and this one. We may imagine entrepreneurship in different versions. It could be entrepreneurial qualities, or it could be charisma. Here I want to talk about entrepreneurship through the lenses of our China New Entrepreneur Development Program (NEDP) from four aspects. I also want to talk about the similarities and differences between entrepreneurship of the two generations and our practices and plans.

We will talk about the meaning of Chinese entrepreneurship from four aspects. The first is a global outlook – that is, entrepreneurs should have a global vision. As mankind lives in a community of shared future, we entrepreneurs should think on such a high level. The global outlook has accompanied us for 17 years. That’s why we started study tours, to Stanford, to elsewhere in the United States, and around the world. That is a global outlook. The second is a Chinese heart. Every entrepreneur should be patriotic. The third is innovation ability. When our program was established, Wang Mengkui, the then Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, congratulated us with an inscription "Be Innovative". It means that entrepreneurs must have passion for innovation, which inspires the ability to innovate. The fourth is the ability to practice. It involves both the practice of the state and that of enterprises. It shows an entrepreneur's competence in practice.

About the similarities and differences between the two generations of entrepreneurship, we propose to seek harmony from differences for constant growth. Speaking of the two generations of entrepreneurs, one is our generation of entrepreneurs, and the other is the new generation of young entrepreneurs. The two generations share the same entrepreneurial spirit. As for the differences, I think the president of the China Public Diplomacy Association has aptly summarized it: What we fail to do can be achieved by young people. They are masters of the keyboard, the Internet, and fashion, which may not be our strengths. Therefore, due to the differences in times, starting points, and knowledge and skills acquired, the two generations are different in their methods and tools, paths, and certainly lifestyles and preferences. I believe our generation of entrepreneurs, the elder generation, must often advise the young generation on how to grow up. We prefer to tell the young people the experience of our success and how hard we have achieved such success. However, when the students of our China Young Entrepreneur Development Program come to learn and discuss, they don't really want to hear our experience of success or how hard we had been working. They prefer to ask these questions: Have you ever failed? What is your experience of failure? Tell us your experience of failure. So, our courses in the future will cover the power of failure.

I'd like to draw your attention back to NEDP. NEDP is the China New Entrepreneur Development Program. It was initiated in 2004 by the Development Research Center of the State Council with the support of Stanford University in the United States. The program is shortened as NEDP. Former Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC Xu Kuangdi wrote an inscription in 2004 for NEDP, saying: "Smart application is out of a devoted mind." The then Director Wang Mengkui of the Development Research Center of the State Council wrote the message "Be Innovative" as his wish for NEDP. In the past 17 years, we've had a great team of instructors. As the Development Research Center of the State Council is our academic guide, NEDP has a huge team of instructors. Since 2004, NEDP has welcomed over 300 Chinese instructors and over 100 foreign instructors. 23 percent of them are ministerial officials, and 30 percent are bureau-director level officials. Our instructors also include outstanding entrepreneurs, well-known scholars, and noted academicians. In the past 17 years, NEDP has successfully groomed more than 1,000 entrepreneurs from home and abroad in more than 30 trades. Indeed, from the Fortune 500 rankings since 2000, we can see the rise of Chinese entrepreneurs. In 2000, 13 Chinese companies entered the Fortune 500 list. This year, Chinese companies have outnumbered American companies on the Fortune 500 list. There are 133 Chinese companies on the list, and the number is 121 for the United States. Among the top 5 of the Fortune 500 list this year, three are Chinese companies – namely, Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation, and State Grid Corporation of China. The leaders of all three companies had studied with NEDP. We have 10 alumni associations, and our alumni are connected with more than 200 listed companies and 65 Fortune 500 companies. The companies led by our alumni generate an annual output of more than RMB20 trillion.

NEDP's plan is to forge ahead, while staying true to the original aspiration, with helping entrepreneurs cultivate the four abilities mentioned earlier. We are even more devoted to developing the China Young Entrepreneur Development Program that advocates continuance and innovation. Of course, we are still committed to the interpretation of national policies, which has always been an objective of our program. Later we will launch a program to study the development of Fortune 500 companies. We invite Fortune 500 companies and their leaders to become fellow researchers of the Development Research Center of the State Council – that is, the think tank of the State Council. The China Young Entrepreneur Development Program focuses on continuance and innovation, because we want to help young people make their way in the world, learn from past business practices, carry out in-depth learning, and meet a bright future.

Speaking of the "dual carbon" policy, the policy is a medium- and long-term strategy of China. How to ensure high-quality development with low carbon emissions is a question to be answered by both the state and the entrepreneurs. This is a question that concerns corporate operations.

The theme of my speech today is "Seek Harmony from Differences for Constant Growth". We think the most important elements of entrepreneurship are a global outlook, a Chinese heart, the ability to innovate, and the ability to practice. I firmly believe that Chinese entrepreneurs will pass on and carry forward these four elements, and that Chinese entrepreneurship will develop constantly, contributing to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.