The innovativeness and entrepreneurship of the youth stand out as the two main focal points at a panel discussion of young delegates at the 2017 BRICS Youth Forum in Beijing on July 25.

The BRICS countries have similarities in their development course, and exchanging experiences in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship among the BRICS youth is conducive to coordinated cooperation among the BRICS countries.

Marco Vinholi, an official from the Legislative Assembly of the State of San Paulo of Brazil, introduced the concept of active entrepreneurship and the obstacles faced by start-ups in Brazil.

“The mark of our generation is innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said. “The basic obstacles to youth entrepreneurship are the lack of qualifications, international cooperation and funding for young entrepreneurs, as well as the bureaucracy. The BRICS countries should improve people-to-people exchanges, increase cooperation on innovation and provide more funds.”

Svetlana Skorikova, project manager of the Center for International Cooperation of the Russian Union of Youth (RUY), called for setting up a BRICS youth business incubator.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are among the interesting areas of cooperation for young people, said Skorikova, further specifying that the main purpose of the incubator is to generate and encourage more business cooperation among BRICS countries.

Gitika Lakhotia, risk consultant of Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler, a professional service company and one of the Big Four auditors, outlined the measures the Indian government introduced to promote youth entrepreneurship since 2014.

The Start-up India and Stand-up India initiatives facilitated business registration by providing a one-stop service. Besides, India also established a new bank to help the re-financing of SMEs and provided professional training to SME entrepreneurs and women.

Xu Zewei, CEO of 91jinrong.com, an e-finance platform in China, shared his experience of operating a start-up company in China.

“You will not succeed unless you try,” He encouraged the youth to start new companies under the favorable policies towards youth entrepreneurs.

He also called for further decreasing the cost of starting new companies, and encouraged mutual help among investors and entrepreneurs.

South African representative Abel Motsoge, chairman of JHB head office, pointed out the major difficulties for start-ups in South Africa.

He said many new companies failed to operate for more than two years due to the high bidding cost and bureaucracy. He called for more government support and increasing BRICS cooperation in communications, finance, infrastructure, logistics and renewable energy.

China’s first Mars simulation base will be built in Northwest China’s Qinghai Province, China News Service reported on Tuesday.

Located in Dachaidan Hongya region of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, a hinter land of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the base will be established in Qaidam Basin. The area’s landform, natural landscape and climate condition resemble closely to those of Mars, said Wang Jingzhai, the prefecture’s deputy Party chief.

Spread over 95,000 square kilometers of desert, the area has China’s largest Yadan landform, or dry areas with wind erosion landscape. It also has other elements, such as mountain, prairie, Gobi desert, river and lake.

Adjacent to many tourist attractions along the Hexi Corridor, a part of the Silk Road in Gansu Province, the Mars simulation base will be turned into a cultural and tourist experience base that combine elements of “science, science fiction, nature, ecology and culture”, said Liu Xiaoqun, director of lunar and deep space exploration general department, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The base will comprise two functional areas – “Mars community” and “Mars campsite” – which will be connected by road but invisible to each other, Liu said.

As the only one of its kind in China, the base has filled the gap in science practice education base that combines the fields of space, astronomy, geology, meteorology and new energy, Liu said.

Nearly 80 percent of Chinese cities saw an easing in traffic jams in the second quarter of the year, mainly thanks to an online car-hailing service and shared bicycle service, according to a report released yesterday.

The report was released by Amap, a major mapping and navigation platform, along with China Academy of Transportation Sciences, the Research Center for Sustainable Transportation set up by Tsinghua University and Daimler, Alibaba Cloud and Ofo.

It showed that, in the quarter, the number of traffic jams in many Chinese cities dropped sharply.

Fifteen cities recorded a drop of more than 8 percent in terms of traffic easing, with Tianjin, Qingdao and Wuhan taking the top three spots. It was the first time such statistics had shown a downward trend since Amap started to survey traffic flows in 2014.

Among the 100 cities in the report, 77 percent witnessed significant traffic easing, especially among first and second tier cities. Even Beijing, notoriously for “forever jam,” recorded a drop of more than five percent in the index on a year-on-year basis.

However, the remaining 23 percent of Chinese cities surveyed saw the worse traffic jams. Most are third or fourth tier cities. The top three cities with the largest rise in traffic jams are Qingyuan, Zhaoqing and Hong Kong. Qingyuan’s traffic jam situation index rose by 12.9 percent.

The report said less traffic jam in most cities is due to new policies involving an online car-hailing services and shared bicycle services, as well as improvement in the urban road networks and efficient internet-aided traffic management.

Footprints left by a wild Siberian tiger have been discovered in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, further evidence of the species’ presence in the region.

Xu Jinxue, who lives in Hulin’s Zhenbaodao Township, stumbled upon the footprints when he was tending his paddy field.

“The footprints were larger than my palm and were shaped like those of cats,” Xu said. He took pictures of the prints and sent them to the local authority. The footprints were later identified by wildlife experts as belonging to a Siberian tiger.

“From the footprints we concluded that the tiger had been walking slowly and was quite heavy,” said Zhou Haixiang of the Chinese National Committee for Man and the Biosphere Program.

Evidence of wild Siberian tigers has been confirmed several times this year by Raohe County and Dongfanghong forestry bureau, close to Hulin, meaning it is highly possible that the big cats live in the area. The footprints also prove that there are adults and cubs among the tigers.

China has strengthened ecological protection in recent years, resulting in the gradual increase of wildlife living in areas near the Russian border.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s most endangered species.

They predominantly live in northeast China and eastern Russia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for all-out efforts to push forward military reform with the support of the entire nation and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks Monday afternoon at a group study attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The group study focused on reform of the military in size, structure, and formation.

Carried out in a bold and resolute way, national defense and military reform has taken historic steps and achieved historic breakthroughs and achievements in major fields, pumping great power into building a strong army, Xi said.

The reform mainly includes optimizing the country’s military size, structure, and formation, and solving structural contradictions that hinder the development of national defense and the armed forces, he said.

As the reform deepens, China will have a smaller army with better combat capability and optimized structure, the president said.

“Quantity should be reduced and quality improved to build a capable and efficient army, and labor intensity should become S&T-oriented,” Xi said, adding that China is developing a joint operation force system with an elite force at its core.

He reiterated that reform on national defense and armed forces is an overall and revolutionary change, with unprecedented strength, depth and breadth.

“We should be resolute, confident, brave and vigorous to achieve victory in such reform,” he said, calling for close following of decisions made by the CPC Central Committee and the CMC.

Xi said that the reform should take the correct direction, inspections should be strengthened, and various reform measures should be put into practice.

He said that the adjustment and reform of policies and systems will directly influence the vital interests of officers and soldiers, the army’s morale, the military’s vitality as well as the reform’s overall performance.

Military authorities should intensify relevant research, map out systematic and proactive reform plans, and enhance the “sense of gain” among officers and soldiers, Xi said.

Xi also stressed consolidation and spread of theoretical, practical and institutional achievements acquired through the national defense and military reform.