Europe must capitalise better on the knowledge it produces, and turn its innovation potential into economic growth. Research and innovation should be prioritised in EU and national budgets, with a doubling of the budget of the successor to Horizon 2020, the current EU research and innovation programme.
Věra Jourová, EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality of the European Commission, and Haruhi Kumazawa, Commissioner of the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan met in Brussels on 3 July 2017 to advance their dialogue with a view to promoting high standards of data protection as a fundamental right and a central factor of consumer trust in the digital economy.
They welcomed the work carried out over the course of the last months by the Secretariat of the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan and the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission, which has significantly strengthened the mutual understanding of the EU and Japanese data protection rules. On the basis of that work, they acknowledged that the recent reforms of their respective privacy legislation have further increased the convergence between their two systems. This offers new opportunities to further facilitate smooth and mutual data flows, in particular through simultaneous finding of an adequate level of protection by both sides.
With this in mind, they decided to intensify their efforts towards achieving this goal by early 2018, including by addressing relevant differences, building on the enhanced convergence between their two systems.
Background
As announced in January 2017 in its Communication on Exchanging and Protecting personal data in a globalised world, the Commission has launched a dialogue with the aim of reaching an “adequacy decision” with Japan. Adequacy decisions allow for the free flow of personal data to countries with “essentially equivalent” data protection rules to those in the EU.
Europe must capitalise better on the knowledge it produces, and turn its innovation potential into economic growth. Research and innovation should be prioritised in EU and national budgets, with a doubling of the budget of the successor to Horizon 2020, the current EU research and innovation programme.
Students in China are eager to start businesses and hope that their colleges can provide more opportunities to foster entrepreneurship, according to a survey from a universities alliance Tuesday.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Alliance of China (IEEAC) is a platform for universities to share their experience in entrepreneurship and nurture students’ innovative and entrepreneurship spirit.
The IEEAC surveyed students from 130 colleges, and more than 80 percent of students said they are willing to start businesses.
Nearly half of the students surveyed hoped to receive training and financial support for entrepreneurship from colleges.
Only 17 percent of startup projects in colleges provide overseas exchange and cooperation opportunities, according to the survey.
“We should promote international cooperation in innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as cooperation between colleges and enterprises,” said Sun Hongbin, secretary general of the IEEAC.
According to the Ministry of Education, a total of 7.95 million college students are expected to graduate in 2017.
Around 3 percent of this year’s college graduates are expected to start businesses, up from only 1.6 percent of college graduates who started businesses in 2011, according to a report jointly released by the educational research company MyCOS Institute and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
“It is important for students to learn about the country’s policies and evaluate their skills before starting businesses,” said Zhu Zhuohong from CAS.
Nine people have been confirmed dead, and 19 others are injured after a rain-triggered mudslide swept through part of a village in central China’s Hunan Province.
The mudslide occurred about 4 p.m. Saturday in Zuta Village, Ningxiang County, after continuous heavy rain since Friday, according to the county government.
A four-day search and rescue operation recovered nine bodies, the government said Tuesday.
Southern China has been battered by continuous rain over recent weeks. China’s Finance Ministry on Monday released 1.9 billion yuan (about 280 million U.S. dollars) in emergency funds for flood relief in south China.
The funds will go to 20 provinces and autonomous regions including Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, where torrential rains in the past week have caused severe floods.