GASME News

World Manufacturing Convention 2018 held in Hefei

The world Manufacturing Convention 2018 and the Anhui Investment and Trade Expo 2018 were held in Hefei, Anhui Province, China from May 25^th to 27^th, 2018.

Approved by the Central Government, this convention is hosted by the Global Alliance of SMEs (GASME), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and Anhui Provincial Government, co-hosted by the Federation of German Industries (BDI), and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC, National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC, the Ministry of Commerce of PRC, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Development Research Center of the State Council, All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

Themed as ‘Shaping the Future of Manufacturing’, this convention has gathered more than 4,000 government officials, representatives from international organizations, business associations, and outstanding entrepreneurs from over 70 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa. This convention includes 19 events such as Keynote Forum, break-out sessions and matchmaking, as well as 6 exhibition pavilions including comprehensive exhibition and international smart manufacturing exhibition. The latest and the most featured achievements, technologies and products in the field of manufacturing have been screened out and exhibited. The Convention has discussed the reform, opportunities and challenges in the manufacturing industry, explored the future driven by the new industrial revolution and provided forward-looking ideas and solutions to tackle with future problems faced by the global manufacturing industry. During the Convention, leaders and guests have reached extensive consensus on the future development of global manufacturing, and issued the 2018World Manufacturing Convention Hefei Manifesto.

More than 400 international guests were invited to the Convention, including 20 ex-state leaders, ministerial officials and heads of international organizations, 58 leaders from world Top 500 companies, and over 300 representatives from international manufacturing companies. Distinguished guests to the Convention included: Christian Wulff, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany and Global Chairman of GASME, Ban Ki-moon, the Eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Zheng Jianbang, Vice Chairman of CPPCC, Li Jinbin, Party Secretary of Anhui Provincial Government, Li Guoying, Governor of Anhui Provincial Government, Li Xiaolin, President of the CPAFFC, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Philippe Scholtès, Managing Director of Directorate of Programme Development and Technical Cooperation of the UNIDO, Carlos Magariños, Chairman Emeritus of GASME and Former Director General of UNIDO, Bruno Le Roux, Former Minister of the Interior of France, Kurt Bodewig, President of the National Road Safety Organization of Germany, William Manger, Associate Administrator of Small Business Administration of the United States, Ulrich Grillo, Vice President of BDI, Jochem Heizmann, CEO and President of Volkswagen Group China, Marc Bitzer, CEO of Whirlpool Corp, Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Labs Network of SAP SE Germany, Claude Smadja, Chairman of Smadja & Smadja Strategic Advisory and Former Managing Director of World Economic Forum, Zhang Jindong, Chairman of Suning Commerce Group, Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of the Board of BYD Company, Wang Zhenghua, Chairman of Spring Airlines of China, Liu Qingfeng, Chairman of The Board and President at Iflytek Co., Ltd., Jin Xiangzuo, Chairman of World Packaging Center Group as well as senior executives from Airbus, General Electric Co., HP Inc., Accenture, Honeywell and other Fortune 500 and industry leading companies.

H.E. Ban Ki-moon delivered a speech at the welcome banquet, stating that the worsening ecological crisis around the world was closely related to the ways of manufacturing production featured with high energy consumption, large waste emissions, and heavy pollution. He noted that many of the 17 aspects of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals were related to the development of the manufacturing industry. He believed that the success of World Manufacturing Convention would definitely promote the sustainable development of the global manufacturing industry and contribute to creating a global manufacturing community with shared destiny and facilitating the high-quality development of manufacturing in different countries.

H.E. Christian Wulff pointed out at the opening ceremony that a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation characterized by the integration of manufacturing and a new generation of information and communication technologies had emerged in a global context. Strategic dialogues and reflection are necessary regarding new global rules for manufacturing, global value chains, global equilibrium and global governance. Therefore, creating a global high-end platform for international cooperation and exchange in manufacturing is a necessary step and a natural outcome.

Vice Chairman Zheng Jianbang pointed out that China’s manufacturing industry had made remarkable achievements, with enormous potential and prospects for future development. China is willing to work together with the international community to face the great challenge brought about by the adjustment of the global industrial competition. The development of China’s manufacturing industry has also brought about major cooperation opportunities to all countries in the world. Four points were proposed: first, insist on innovation as the leading force; second, promote quality improvement; third, deepen open cooperation; fourth, enhance support for talents. Economic globalization has become an irreversible trend of the times. In the future, China will deepen its opening-up and manufacturing will take a more innovative path, “manufacturing” more miracles and better life.

Party Secretary Li Jinbin stated that Anhui would stick to innovation as its main driving force and intelligence as the main subject, adhere to green development and the principle of opening up, and strive to create a new height with two-way interaction and internal and external linkages. Anhui warmly welcomes talents and companies at home and abroad for innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment and development under the new industrial revolution, and is looking forward to working together with them to reach to the peak of manufacturing, and jointly create the well-being of all.

Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that the Chinese government attached great importance to the development of smart manufacturing. In recent years, China has continuously improved the top-level design of smart manufacturing, and systematically promoted its development with pilot demonstration, standard system construction and systematic solution provider cultivation as the starting point, and positive fruits had been made in promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, improving industrial support capabilities, and accelerating the development of kinetic energy conversion. Mr. Xin emphasized the large gap in building a manufacturing power despite all these achievements. He proposed “four roads” for China’s manufacturing industry—the road of innovation and development, the road of integration and development, the road of cluster development, and the road of green development.

The 2018 World Manufacturing Convention Hefei Manifesto was launched during the convention, which proposed four initiatives: first, maintain innovation-driven path; second, promote green development; third, expand openness and integration; and fourth, enhance win-win cooperation. The ultimate goal was to promote the open, inclusive, balanced and win-win development of the world manufacturing industry.

More than ten break-out sessions took place during this convention, covering topics such as the Internet of Things, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, digital enterprise development and reform, exploring the latest fields and investment priorities of smart manufacturing, expanding the blueprint for the development of electronics, exploring the new development of business organizations in fluctuations, advancing the implementation of intellectual property strategies, and accelerating the innovation of smart manufacturing. Leaders from the world's top 500 and industrial leading enterprises, renowned research institutes, and business associations held heated discussions on the above cutting-edge topics and well interacted with participations.

Through matchmaking, the convention produced fruitful results. 436 cooperation projects were signed, totaling at 447.1 billion yuan of investment with 9 industries involved, including electronic information and home appliances, new materials and new energy, equipment manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, modern services, automobiles and auto parts, and bio-pharmaceuticals.

The GASME Business Banquet held on the evening of May 25 also witnessed multiple fruits: German Red Dot Corporation signed a Letter of Intent on strategic cooperation with the Hefei Municipal Government and Red Dot Design Museum was expected to settle in Hefei; GASME, Hefei University, and the University of Stuttgart signed an MoU on establishing a Sino-German advanced manufacturing cooperation promotion center; launch ceremonies of Global Network of Business Organizations and Global Manufacturing Cooperation Alliance were held. In addition, GASME also signed strategic cooperation agreements with Hefei, Ma’anshan, Wuhu, and World Packaging Center Group.

On May 26, President Wulff attended the unveiling ceremonies of the China-Germany Advanced Manufacturing Industry (Hefei) Cooperation Promotion Center, the Global Network of Business Organizations (Hefei) Base, and the Sino-German Solid Waste Research Collaborative Innovation Center at Hefei University.

This convention has many intelligent elements. The ingenious combination of ice screen effects and robotic elements at the opening ceremony was unique and impressive. The exhibition was dazzling with a superb array of cutting-edge technologies, with more than 500 companies from global manufacturing industry joining as exhibitors in the six exhibition areas of General Exhibition, International Smart Manufacturing Exhibition, Domestic Smart Manufacturing Exhibition, Anhui Import & Export Commodity Exhibition, Financial Service Industry Exhibition, and Anhui Human Resource Exhibition, with a total area of 43,000 square meters. More than 50,000 visitors fully appreciated the charm of heated technologies such as robots, electric vehicles, and VR.