On May 22, ICBC and University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) jointly announced the Third Annual "ICBC Cup" Nationwide University Students Banking Products Design Contest, in Beijing. This year, the organizers invited the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League as the special sponsor. This year's contest invited 56 universities and added the essay competition on product experience. With an aim to encourage the enterprising spirit of the young to put what they have learnt to actual practice as advocated by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, this year's contest will set up a platform for the university students to bring out their best through their creativity, and to help them contribute own value to the society.

Undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral students at universities across the countries are all welcomed to join this year's contest. Those who are interested can visit the official website (http://innovation.uibe.edu.cn/) or Weibo (http://weibo.com/2108433620) for further information. The organizing committee will choose the best design from the entries under the principle of "Open, Fair, Just". Winners of banking product design competition and product experience essay competition are given the opportunity to join ICBC as interns on top of a cash award up to RMB 10,000 and RMB2,000 respectively. During this period, ICBC will join local Communist Youth League and universities to disseminate financial literacy to students, provide practice internship opportunities for students and create favorable conditions to incorporate the creative ideas into innovation projects of ICBC banking products.

In the last two years of "ICBC Cup" contests, the organizing committee received nearly a thousand design proposals from 6,000+ contestants coming from 500+ universities at home and abroad. Many creative proposals closely relate to the people's everyday life and are very practical, featuring the trend of modern era. They are good references for banking product innovation. The panel judges finally decided to present awards to 76 proposals and "Excellent Organizing Award" to 20 universities. After two years of efforts, the contest engages more with the public as a result of the heightening visibility. University professors and students are happy to join this influential innovative activity that has gained considerable public recognition. The contest has been proven to be a great opportunity for the university students to combine their theory and practical experience, shape up their capability to innovate and research new products and train them as practical-type talents with high innovation skill to the needs of the society. It is also beneficial to the industry-academic-research partnership, gathering all the forces to drive financial innovation and improve the level of financial services.

Being a commercial bank in China offering the most number of financial products and having the strongest innovation capability, ICBC sticks to the company mission of "Excellent services to clients, Great contribution to society" and remains committed to the business objective of "Customer First, Services Create Value", said the organizers. Leveraging its technology leadership, ICBC moves forward its product innovation and service improvement and turns innovations into business applications. This results in the launch of a wide spectrum of new products, new services of high technology, high practical usage, high availability and high valued-added, tailored to the needs of the customers. At the end of 2011, ICBC had 3,243 products, 2.6 times more than 2005's, covering all business areas in capital markets, monetary markets and insurance markets. Meanwhile, ICBC evolves its capabilities while focusing consistently on innovation. So far, ICBC has 178 state patents, over 60% of all patents in China banking sector. UIBE, a leading school in the China for the study of international trade and economics, has made significant progress in teaching and research over the years under the principle of human-centric, open-door school, supplying large groups of talented, creative and knowledgeable students to work in the society. With the support from the Communist Youth League, UIBE and ICBC jointly organizing this year's contest opens a new model for the community to cultivate creative talents, encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, drives the implementation of financial innovation of the university students in the society and promotes China into a country of innovation. The contest is a platform for university students to gain practical experience and help the universities train up talents, said representatives from many universities. University students are encouraged to join the contest, put their creativity to work, contribute to the society, a good interaction between financial innovation and talent cultivation.