In the morning of Nov.15th, Deputy Secretary-General and Acting Governor Zhu Xiaodan meets with Prof. Dr. Hans-Joerg Bullinger, President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Mr. Joe Jimenez, CEO of Novartis respectively at Dong Fang Hotel.

Zhu respectfully calls Dr. Hans-Joerg Bullinger “teacher”. He says that Dr. Hans-Joerg Bullinger has been an old friend of Guangdong Province. It is very admiring for Dr. Hans-Joerg Bullinger to come to attend the five sessions of ICCFED since 2003 and contribute his ideas to the development of Guangdong’s economy.

Zhu suggests that the two sides should implement the working mechanism for the execution of the strategic cooperation framework between Guangdong Provincial Government and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and turn the core content of the agreement into specific work plan; carry out joint innovation program in key areas and work together to undertake the special project of making breakthroughs in key technologies; build a industrial innovation public platform and press ahead the innovation capacity building of Guangdong’s industrial parks; attract the industrial service enterprises from Germany to join the Sino-German Industrial Service Demonstration Zone so as to promote the concentration of high end service and high level development in the parks; improve the cooperation level of the two sides and strive to include the cooperation project into the national scientific and technological cooperation project between China and German Governments.

Zhu emphasizes that he hopes to build an innovation alliance for new energy vehicle technologies with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft to supports the Southern Base of FAW Volkswagen in manufacturing electrical vehicles of domestic brands, thus providing technological support to the development of new energy vehicles industry.

Dr. Hans-Joerg Bullinger expresses that Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft stands ready to share their innovation experience with Guangdong and work together to establish a task force for the R&D of electrical vehicles. He also discusses with Zhu the construction of cities in the future.

During his meeting with Mr. Joe Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, Zhu expresses his gratitude to Mr. Joe Jimenez for his suggestions on encouraging the cooperation among industry, academia and government, breaking down the barriers to clinic experiments and implementing the IPR protection institution.

Regarding the cooperation between the two sides at the next stage, Zhu hopes that Novartis can build its Zhongshan Factory into the largest and most competitive manufacturing base for generic pharmaceuticals in China and establish a R&D base for OTC pharmaceuticals and generic pharmaceuticals based on the Novartis Sandoz project in Zhongshan city. He also hopes that Novartis can make use of their rich experience to actively engage in the institutional reform of Guangdong’s healthcare system.

Mr. Joe Jimenez expresses that Novartis will further expand the manufacturing base in Zhongshan and build a product distribution center for China market there. Norvartis will also consider building a R&D center in Guangdong.