Winners of the Best Innovative Practice awards pose for pictures on the dais at a ceremony in Shanghai yesterday. (Photo/Shanghai Daily)
Joyce Wu (left), editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily, presents a Talent Development award to one of the corporate winners.(Photo/Shanghai Daily)
Foreign multinational companies that contributed to Shanghai's development as a global technology and innovation center were awarded prizes at a glittering ceremony in the city on Thursday.
There were 40 winners — all chosen from a competition, which was jointly organized by the English-language newspaper Shanghai Daily and online news provider Eastday.com.
The organizers said they had received 81 applications from multinational companies. Each of them had submitted one or more examples of their work done in promoting technological development and business innovation.
Of the 40 winners, 12 companies were declared the best in the business.
The competition was launched in June with the stated purpose of not only choosing the best from a host of foreign companies in the city but also as a means to provide a platform to connect the multinationals with government officials, academicians and the general public.
The event was supported by the Information Office of Shanghai city government and the Shanghai Commission of Commerce. The panel of judges included renowned scientists, scholars and the general public who were given the rights to vote.
"It is an innovation already to gather together so many multinational companies of different trades," said Vincent Lo, chairman of Shui On Group, which was one of the winners at the aptly-named Knowledge and Innovation Community in Yangpu District.
According to the organizers, the winners were picked after a careful review by an expert panel led by He Lin, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. More than 5.7 million people voted online, making the contest a close race.
