Nokia sets up innovation center in Beijing

Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp set up its Experience & Innovation Center in Beijing on Tuesday, to help 30 Chinese start-ups become listed in three to five years.

The Finnish company said that it would create a platform for mobile Internet start-ups in China. The center will provide various developers and entrepreneurs with advices and solutions, to encourage them to grow their businesses.

The center will select 3,000 entrepreneurial ideas, help set up 300 technology start-ups and aid 30 companies out of them to be listed in major stock markets across the world in the following three to five years, said Lin Qizhong, vice-president of Nokia (China) Investment Co Ltd.

"Beijing is an important engine for the development of China's mobile Internet industry. That's why Nokia established the center here," Lin said.

Beijing's revenue from the software and information services industry in 2011 surpassed that of Ireland, and was 1.5 times that of Bangalore in India, he said.

The mobile Internet industry in China is expected to be worth 540 billion yuan ($85.32 billion) by 2015, accounting for about 1 percent of the country's GDP.

In April 2011, Nokia named Beijing as its global innovation hub. Beijing is the only city that does global R&D work for both Nokia's feature phones and smartphones.

Fu Lei, managing director of the newly launched center, said it would cooperate with Chinese universities and high-tech zones to find great ideas and entrepreneurs.