DIRK THOMAS, the only winner of this year's National Friendship Award living in Guangdong Province, said Shenzhen was pivotal to the success of his business plans in China.

"Shenzhen City, and our many friends here, are pivotal to the success of our business plans in China and to our overall global goals," Thomas, vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), told the Shenzhen Daily recently.

Thomas leads the company's Greater China operations, which include three manufacturing companies in Shenzhen and numerous customer service and support centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei. He was awarded the National Friendship Award by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) on Sept. 30, for his contribution to the hard disk drive industry as well as the Chinese economy.

"The National Friendship Award is not a personal award, but an honor to Shenzhen City and its people," said Thomas, who is the ninth Shenzhen expatriate to win the honor.

When he first came to Shenzhen in 1992, he placed his hand in the wet cement of a new building and said his future was here, recalled Thomas. Last year, with the development of Hitachi's Mega Manufacturing Center in Shenzhen, he was asked how he felt about China and responded:" Zhongguo, wuode mingyun (China is my destiny)."

"That's what I have felt for a long while and believed even more strongly today," said Thomas.

He gave credit to his team for helping him win the award. "Hitachi GST has its global vision and mission, but it is the people in it that make these come true," he said.

Thomas regards the honor as a new starting point for him and his colleagues to make "ever greater contributions to the prosperity of China and its wonderful peoples."

The National Friendship Award is a prestigious award the Chinese Government grants to overseas experts who make outstanding contributions to China's social development, economy, technology, culture and talent development. Award winners are selected through voting by the appraisal committee appointed by the SAFEA. Since 1991, a total of 850 foreign experts from 55 countries have received the award.

Editor: Wing