LEADERS of various sectors in Shenzhen attended a seminar yesterday to try and find ways to sharpen Shenzhen's core advantages and improve its global popularity, a lack of which hinders the city from attracting more high-level foreign investments, participants said.

The seminar was organized by Invest Shenzhen and attended by government officials, scholars, entrepreneurs, government institutions and members of the media. 

"Compared to Beijing, Shanghai and other cultural cities, like Xi'an, Shenzhen is a rare name in the global community. Competitiveness is the special culture of the city," Gao Haiyan, president of Shenzhen Metropolitan City Institute, said.

Gu Zhengjiang, a senior planner at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, said Shenzhen needs to develop a clear image of itself in order to boost its global presence.

"The image of the city is getting vague, which requires government departments to redefine the city and promote it to the world," he said.

Following the model of HK Invest, Invest Shenzhen was established in 2011 and has attracted 1,554 projects involving total investments of more than 561 billion yuan (US$90.8 billion) in the first half of this year.

HK Invest assistant manager Lavinia Chan said the organization provides consulting services for industries.

(Source:Shenzhen Daily)