GASME News

China-EU and U.S. Manufacturing Cooperation Forum Held in Hefei

On November 19th, the China-EU and U.S. Manufacturing Cooperation Forum with the theme of “Deepening China-U.S. and China-EU manufacturing cooperation and promoting a manufacturing community with a shared future” was successfully held at the World Manufacturing Convention 2021.

This forum was hosted by Global Alliance of SMEs (GASME), Lu’an Municipal People’s Government, Global Alliance of Business Organizations and other organizations, and was supported by the Department of Commerce of Anhui, Hefei Municipal People’s Government, Xinhuanet Co., Ltd. and other organizations. This forum was aimed to achieve in-depth discussion about manufacturing investment and trade cooperation between China and the U.S. as well as between China and the EU, and to enhance the international influence of World Manufacturing Convention.

Christian Wulff, former President of Germany and Global Chairman of GASME, delivered a speech via video. Many guests delivered speeches at the forum, including He Weiwen, Vice Chairman of GASME and former Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Consulate General of the P.R. China in San Francisco and New York, Xie Zhong, Member of the Standing Committee of Lu’an and Deputy Mayor of Lu’an, Frank Cao, Secretary-General of GASME and Chinese Affairs Advisor to former German President Wulff, Otthein Herzog, Fellow of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Han Zhongchao, Academician of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Xiao Jinhe, Member of Party Committee and Vice General Manager of Anhui Xinhua Distribution (Group) Holdings Co., Ltd., Liu Hongwei, Executive Vice President of Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd., Liu Jiguang, Director of Anhui Digital Precision Casting and Manufacturing Innovation Center and Level II Professor of Hefei University of Technology, Chen Yueming, Member of the Standing Council of France Office of Western Returned Scholars Association and Co-founder of Ever Spring Group, and Li Ling, Deputy Director of Lu’an Investment and Innovation Center.

Chairman Wulff pointed out in his speech via video that the biggest public health disaster after WWII—COVID-19 pandemic—was still raging around the world. Many low-income countries were particularly in trouble due to insufficient vaccine distribution and financial resource shortage. The world supply chain also encountered disruptions, causing major challenges to the world economic recovery. Trade and investment facilitation was indispensable for quality development of the manufacturing industry. To this end, it was necessary to improve global economic governance system and rules, maintain multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization as its core, build a scientific international division of labor system in the manufacturing industry chain and build an open world economy. During the progress of manufacturing development, we must also pay special attention to green development. This was crucial to energy conservation and emission reduction, the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and our efforts to cope with climate change. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in all countries should take active actions in fields of technological innovation, energy conservation and emission reduction. Chairman Wulff hoped that the manufacturing industries of Germany and China could use this event as an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation, especially the cooperation between SMEs, and lead global manufacturing recovery in the post-pandemic era.

Vice Chairman He Weiwen delivered a keynote speech with the theme of “Building an open and collaborative Sino-U.S. supply chain under the banner of multilateralism”. He stressed that, in order to realize world economic balance and a continuous strong recovery, it was especially necessary for major economies and big manufacturing countries like China and the U.S. to cooperate openly in manufacturing technological R&D, investment, production and sales covering the whole supply chain. The pandemic had accelerated digital transformation of the world manufacturing industry. The manufacturers in China, the U.S. and the EU should jointly call on all countries to follow the G20 Rome Leaders’ Declaration, and to realize global manufacturing cooperation based on the principles of openness and inclusiveness under the multilateral trading system with the WTO as its core. He hoped that all countries could seize the new historical development period and seek all possible cooperation with an open, cooperative and multilateral vision and a pragmatic spirit, striving for mutual development and long-term win-win results.

Secretary-General Frank Cao pointed out in his speech that the cooperation between China and the EU as well as the U.S. was crucial, especially in the manufacturing sector. He thought that China’s manufacturing industry should pay more attention to and learn from German Industry 4.0, industrial design, invisible champions and its SME innovation mechanism. According to Secretary-General Cao, GASME is cooperating with relevant Chinese and German institutions to establish a Sino-EU Manufacturing Cooperation Center in China and is currently selecting sites. He said that, as an organization enjoying both consultative statuses with the United Nations Economic and Social Council as well as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, GASME had broader responsibilities and would play a greater role in global economic governance, especially in international manufacturing cooperation.

Otthein Herzog, Fellow of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered a keynote speech themed “Advanced manufacturing CPS (Cyber Physical Systems)”. Dr. Herzog said that CPS was a multi-dimensional complex system that integrated computing network and physical environment. It could realize real-time perception, dynamic control and information services of large-scale engineering systems. With the rapid progress of the integration of manufacturing and the Internet, CPS was becoming a core technological system supporting and leading the new round of global industrial revolution.

Hu Jing, General Manger of Sina Anhui, hosted the Roundtable Dialogue themed on “Global Manufacturing Cooperation and Digital Integration of ‘Double-carbon’ Economy”. Participants of the dialogue included Han Jianxin, President of Guoqi Dayou Shikong Technologies Co., Ltd., Zhou Songcheng, Chairman of Ningbo GNS Solar Technology Development Co., Ltd., Yu Wanqin, Chairman of Hefei Siou Hulian Technology Co., Ltd., Yang Meirong, Chairman of Wanhao Energy, and Lin Jian, Deputy General Manager of Anhui Government Enterprises of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

The project launching ceremony and the signing ceremony were also held at the forum. Projects officially launched at the forum included China-EU Manufacturing (Hefei) Cooperation Center, Yangtze River Delta Double Carbon Industrial Park, International CPS (Anhui) Innovation Research Institute and Business Cooperation Entrepreneur Cooperation Platform. At the event, GASME signed strategic cooperation agreements with Lu’an Municipal People’s Government and Shanghai Junhe Group.

In 2018, Global Alliance of SMEs and Anhui Provincial People’s Government jointly initiated and hosted the first “World Manufacturing Convention”. It has been successfully held three times so far. This year’s WMC is the fourth. In 2019, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulation letter to the event, setting development goals for the convention at a higher level. In the past three years, a large number of advanced manufacturing projects and strategic projects in the emerging industries have settled in Anhui, presenting the new image of Anhui as a major manufacturing and innovative province.

This forum is organized by Ever Spring Group.

Address via video by Christian Wulff, Global Chairman of GASME and former President of Germany

Speech by He Weiwen, Vice Chairman of GASME and former Economic and Commercial Counselor
at the Consulate General of the P.R. China in San Francisco and New York

Address by Xie Zhong, Member of the Standing Committee of Lu’an and Deputy Mayor of Lu’an Municipality

Speech by Frank Cao, Secretary-General of GASME and Chinese Affairs Advisor to
former German President Wulff President Wulff

Speech by Otthein Herzog, Fellow of the German National Academy of Science
and Engineering and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering

Speech by Han Zhongchao, Academician of the French National Centre for Scientific Research

Speech by Xiao Jinhe, Member of Party Committee and Vice General Manager of
Anhui Xinhua Distribution (Group) Holdings Co., Ltd.

Speech by Liu Hongwei, Executive Vice President of Changhong Meiling Co., Ltd.

Speech by Liu Jiguang, Director of Anhui Digital Precision Casting and
Manufacturing Innovation Center and Second-grade Professor of Hefei University of Technology

Speech by Chen Yueming, Member of the Standing Council of France Office of
Western Returned Scholars Association and Co-founder of Ever Spring Group

Presentation of Lu’an City by Li Ling, Deputy Director of Lu’an Investment and Innovation Center

“Global Manufacturing Cooperation and Digital Integration of ‘Double-carbon’ Economy” Roundtable Dialogue

Project Launching Ceremony

Strategic Cooperation Signing Ceremony between GASME and relevant parties

Forum

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