[Special Report] GDICC 2007>>>

The bi-annual International Consultative Conference on the Future Economic Development of Guangdong Province (GDICC) 2007 plenary opened this morning (Nov. 15) in Guangzhou White Swan Hotel.

The Governor's economic advisors and observers are to gather in White Swan Hotel with Guangdong officials on Thursday and Friday to discuss the ways to build an innovative Guangdong to transform the province’s economic development pattern.

Eight newly appointed advisors received certificated appointments from Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua in the awarding ceromony this morning, inclding: Mr. Peter Leupp, Executive Vice President of ABB Ltd., Mr. Sergio Balbinot, CEO of Assicurazioni Generali and Generali Group, Mme. Carol Bartz, Executive Chairman of Autodesk, Inc., Mr. Etsuhiko Shoyama, Chairman of Hitachi, Ltd., Mr. Satoshi Aoki, Chairman of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Mr. Toshiaki Egashira, President & CEO of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd., Mr. Alexandre F. Jetzer, Member of the Board of Directors Novartis AG., Mr. David Bonderman, Chairman of TPG Capital.

Huang Huahua, Governor of Guangdong, said in the GDICC working report in the Opening Ceremony that the meeting of the GDICC 2005 plenary is highly productive, particularly in the following aspects:

First, advice and suggestions from the advisors have helped promote sustainable development in Guangdong.

At that meeting, the advisors came up with a lot of valuable advice and suggestions after enthusiastic discussions around the theme of the meeting. Important advice and suggestions were given to the sustainable development of Guangdong from three aspects: industrial, ecological and social. After the meeting, we carefully studied and evaluated the 24 advisors’ reports and the suggestions from the advisors and observers. In our decision-making, we have considered the recommendations that best meet with the demand of reality or future development.

In terms of industrially sustainable development, the advisors and observers have given their ideas on such issues as greater technological innovation, stronger ties between businesses, and promotion of the development and application of advanced technologies. For example, the suggestion from organizations like Nokia, ABB, Eastman Kodak, GlaxoSmithKline, and Honda, that the industries shift from MADE IN CHINA to DESIGNED IN CHINA has filled a gap in our policy thinking. Over the past two years innovative activities have been greatly encouraged in the province, which has seen such innovation-oriented and talent-attracting measures as the making of The Decision to Upgrade Industrial Competitiveness by Increasing Autonomous Innovation. In the past two years, we have also increased government investment in innovation. Government grants to the development of science and technology, and investment in R & D have been significantly increased, ranking among the top of the country. On the advice of Emerson Electric which proposed to communicate and share management experience with Guangdong enterprises, we held in November, 2006 the First Guangdong Business Forum, theme of which was Innovation and Development of Enterprises, and which further promoted communication and cooperation between Guangdong businesses and overseas enterprises of good standing. Particularly, in response to Wal-Mart’s proposal to develop and apply RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), we have set up a task force for the application of RFID and the Guangdong Provincial RFID Public Technology Support Center, and experimented with the technology in businesses, the Customs, and Inspection and Quarantine. We have promoted research in the technology and its standards for application.

In terms of ecologically sustainable development, Emerson, ABB, BHP, BP, DuPont, EDF, Novartis, Canon, Shell, Siemens, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and Ernst and Young proposed that we should build an energy-saving and waste-cutting recycling economy. Such a proposal is in agreement with our recent policy priorities. Recently, Guangdong province has promulgated policies for the development of recycling economy, energy conservation and environmental protection. Compulsory standards have been set up for energy conservation and waste reduction in the province during the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan. Experiments have been conducted in some places. A government unit has been set up for the promotion of energy conservation and waste reduction. An energy-saving and waste-reducing EPP (Efficiency Power Plant) project sponsored by the Asia Development Bank for the promotion of energy-saving and waste reduction has been in operation, the first of its kind in China. Guangdong’s efforts in the past two years to cut back energy consumption, fight pollution and reduce wastes are beginning to show good results. Energy consumption in terms of unit production value, energy consumption in terms of unit industrial added value, and total releases of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD) have been more or less reduced. In response to a proposal from Marubeni Corporation on the construction of reclaimed water systems, we have conducted experiments in Shenzhen City. The successful experience will be transferred to other cities in the province.

In terms of socially sustainable development, we have adopted the proposal for improving vocational and technical training in Guangdong from Emerson, the ING Group, Nokia, ABB, and Eastman Kodak by making policies which encourage vocational and technical training, by providing job skills training for a million rural youths, for retired soldiers and for migrant workers from the countryside, by investing in vocational and technical training with loans from the World Bank. In response to the proposal from companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Motorola, and DuPont for social responsibility and ethical conduct, improvement of the social security system, and protection of labor rights, we have raised the minimum wage to a much higher level, extended social insurance, particularly the rural cooperative medicare system to cover more people. The population of participants in the pension plans, unemployment insurance, and employment injury insurance is continuing to grow and ranks the first in the country.

Second, the ICCFED has ushered in a new era of communication and cooperation between Guangdong Province and the organizations which the advisors respectively represent.

On the one hand, through communication with the advisors’ sponsoring organizations, the Province of Guangdong has further developed its vision for a world market. In the past two years, on my trips with Guangdong delegations to Europe, I visited corporate leaders of Nokia, Novartis, ABB, and Ericsson at their premises. And in the same period, corporate leaders of Emerson Electric, ABB, Siemens, Nokia and Marubeni and some other companies also visited Guangdong. This year, Guangdong was the first stop for ABB’s 100th Anniversary of Business in China, which shows the company’s great interest in the province. Novartis has accommodated a series of high-level academic exchanges. The ties between Guangdong and the advisors’ organizations have been tighter. Here, I would like to tell you that in the 11th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development in Guangdong Province which began to be implemented last year, we have specified our priority for the coming years: internationalization of Guangdong economy. This is to plan the future development of Guangdong with a world view. We may as well say that the GDICC has become an important platform for the implementation of such a strategy.

On the other hand, many of the represented organizations have developed a better understanding of Guangdong through the GDICC expanded cooperation with the province in the past two years. For example, Nokia and Siemens set up an R & D center in Shenzhen in February, 2006. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute for Logistics conducted a series of cooperative research projects in Guangdong. Honda not only set up in September 2006 the Guangzhou Honda Motors Limited but also set up in July 2007 the Guangzhou Honda Auto R & D Company Limited whose first phase investment is as much as 2 billion RMB. Siemens has established its office in Foshan, and it is carrying out the cooperation with Guangdong province to build an G&D institute. In November, 2006, ABB signed a five-year strategic agreement with Guangdong to increase energy efficiency in the province’s industries. So far, the company has provided energy efficiency training for approximately 1000 enterprises in the province. Marubeni continued to increase cooperation with Guangdong in terms of energy saving and environmental conservation as well as innovative technologies. So far it has invested in 17 projects in Guangdong. The AIA Guangdong Company was set up in Guangzhou in September, 2006, symbolizing the commencement of its overall participation in the province’s insurance markets. Shell is setting up a lubricant factory in Zhuhai with an anticipated turnout that ranks among the first few of all lubricant factories in the Shell Group. Emerson Electric acquired Artesyn Technologies in the City of Zhongshan and by now it has more employees, a longer investment history and a higher amount of investments in Guangdong than any other Chinese province.

Third, through the platform of the GDICC, both Guangdong Province and the organizations the advisors represent have become more visible in China and elsewhere in the world.

The GDICC has attracted attention of the mainstream media in China and elsewhere. It has become an important platform for the outside world to know Guangdong and for Guangdong to enter the world markets. Through this platform, Guangdong shows the world the great achievements in economic and social development it has made since China introduced the policy of reform and opening-up. With an increased visibility and greater influences, Guangdong has won greater confidence from overseas investors. Likewise, through the same platform, the organizations of the advisors have also increased their visibility in Guangdong and the rest of China. This platform has greatly promoted exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong Province and the organizations of the advisors.

Advisors, observers, ladies and gentlemen, the recent 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China specified goals for the immediate future development of the nation, setting higher standards for innovation, the construction of a brand-new country, accelerated change of the mode of economic development, and structural upgrade of the industries. Therefore, the theme of this conference is Build an Innovative Guangdong to Transform the Economic Development Pattern, which both respond to the requirement of the Party for Scientific Development and Harmonious Society and inherits the theme of sustainable development of the previous conference. Standing between the past and the future, we are here convened to discuss innovation in the imperative industrial upgrading for sustainable development. I hope, and I believe that this meeting will be more fruitful than the previous one and will do more for an innovative Guangdong and for communication and cooperation between Guangdong Province and the organizations of the advisors.

Editor: Donald