The 9th "Maker China" Information Technology Application Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for SMEs was launched at the National Innovation Park in Beijing E-Town. Opening of the registration channel for the competition was on June 24. 

Eligible enterprises and makers can register uniformly through the "Maker China" official website. The registration deadline is July 31.

The competition will run from June to September, focusing on the current hot topics in the development of information technology applications and the industry's focal points. 

It will address the needs of typical application scenarios in important industry fields, breakthroughs in key core technologies, and innovations in cutting-edge technologies. 

The competition covers nine areas: finance, energy, transportation, security, education, healthcare, water conservancy, software application ecosystem tools, and "Artificial Intelligence+" innovative applications. 

It is divided into two tracks: the enterprise group and the maker group. Award-winning projects will be recommended to participate in the national finals of the "Maker China" competition based on their total scores.

To incentivize participating projects, the competition offers several prizes, including a first prize of 50,000 yuan ($6,880.23), a second prize of 20,000 yuan, a third prize of 10,000 yuan, and several excellence awards, with the winners receiving a big gift package of information technology products. 

Additionally, there are supporting incentive policies such as publicity and display, investment and financing matchmaking, settling in the park, results transformation docking, and support for the cultivation and recognition of specialized, and sophisticated enterprises.