Ningbo to promote the leapfrog development of modern service industry

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 11:09

When conducting field inspection in Yinzhou District, Liu Qi, vice Secretary of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Ningbo emphasized the importance of quickening the development of modern service industry in the overall implementation of "six-quickening" strategy and in accelerating transformation of economic development mode. By laying bigger stress on some major fields, optimizing the environment for development and strengthening the support from talents, the industry is to develop by leaps and bounds and make contribution to the scientific and technological development and transformational development.
On the afternoon of September 19, accompanied by Shou Yongnian, Member of the Standing Committee of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of Yinzhou District Party Committee, vice Mayor Wang Renzhou, and vice Mayor Chen Yijun, Mayor Liu Qi first inspected China-Base Ningbo Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. Upon hearing the introduction of the business performance of the corporation, Mayor Liu Qi suggested that as the leading enterprise in import and export trade, while expanding the scale of business, the corporation may learn from the experience and practice of counterparts in other advanced cities and play a leading role in carrying out new port service industries such as ship leasing, shipping finance and shipping insurance. The Mayor，along with his delegation, then inspected Ningbo Hot taste and Olymtech Ningbo. After having a detailed understanding of their business philosophy, business model and scale of development, Mayor Liu Qi encouraged the enterprises to take root in Ningbo and seize every opportunity to develop themselves proactively and grow into model enterprises for Ningbo's service industry.  
Mayor Liu Qi pointed out that making great efforts to develop modern service industry is not only an important task for Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Ningbo Municipal Government in accelerating the economic transformation and upgrading, but also the inevitable requirements for promoting the city's good image and improving people's living standard. He expressed his hopes and good wishes for the enterprises. Firstly, it is necessary to balance the relationship between modern service industry and secondary industry. Secondly, it is necessary to enlarge the scale of the service industry and optimize its structure. Thirdly, emphasis should be put on some major productive fields, such as modern logistics and modern trade, to enhance service efficiency and improve capacity. Fourthly, it is important to further optimize the environment and implement supporting policies in order to attract talents to settle down in Ningbo and guarantee the development of modern service industry

Overseas studying talents inspected environment for entrepreneurship and innovation

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 11:04

On the afternoon of September 17, about 300 overseas studying talents from 20 countries such as the USA, Germany, the UK, Japan and Singapore, visited, in 17 groups divided according to their majors, Ningbo National Hi-Tech Zone, Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, Ningbo Bonded Area, Hangzhou Bay New Zone, towns of Yuyao and Cixi, Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleges and university in Ningbo, such as the University of Nottingham, Ningbo. In this way, they had a better understanding of Ningbo's good environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Those overseas studying talents received warm welcome in each spot mentioned above, where they were informed of the environmental advantages for entrepreneurship and innovation. In some spots, some overseas talents who have settled down served as guides for the visitors and in some spots, visitors got exquisite publicity materials. The overseas studying talents visited some enterprises founded by overseas talents and got plenty of detailed information on the preferential policies and supporting funds for overseas talents

"Academicians visiting enterprises 2011" completed

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 11:08

As one of the major events of Zhejiang Ningbo Week of Talent, Science and Technology, the activity of "academicians visiting enterprises 2011", organized by Ningbo Association of Science and Technology, drew to a successful close on September 19. During the three days of visiting, 12 academicians and 5 experts shared practical experience with and made valuable suggestions to 21 enterprises and research institutes.
As is known, "academicians visiting enterprises" activity is an important carrier for high-end talents exploration project. To meet the enterprises’ need to solve the practical technological difficulties for new technology and new products, Ningbo Association of Science and Technology made great efforts to organize academicians, experts and innovative teams to enter into the related enterprises in groups of different majors and different subjects. The major activities include making technological breakthrough, doing technological diagnosis, providing technological consulting and technological services, carrying out major projects evaluation and conducting academic exchange on certain topics.  
Statistics show that since the first "academicians visiting enterprises" activity was organized by Ningbo Association of Science and Technology in July 2007, 20 such activities have been managed and more than 140 academicians and over 200 experts have engaged in more than 100 cooperative projects.

LED Wall Lamp of UTEC Electric Awarded in UK

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Category: Ningbo Business

Published: Sunday, 18 September 2011 22:38

News came a few days ago that the 270-butterfly-shaped wall lamp, independently developed by Ningbo UTEC Electric Appliances Company won the 2011 UK Lamp Design Award, which made a special report by BBC. “As the product was jointly developed by our design department and the French R&D center, it is a combination of both Chinese and Western styles, which is the key to the winning of the award”, said Zhu Yuehua, chairman of UTEC.
UTEC is a company engaged in production of outdoor lights, with the products going abroad 100%. In recent years, in developing new products, it has been confronted with a bottleneck: it finds it difficult to keep pace with leading companies of lights overseas. To go on imitating foreign products or develop their own products by hiring foreign talents? UTEC chose the latter.
In 2009, UTEC worked with the famous French design company-Design Pool to establish the French research and development center. “We pay the foreign talents flexibly such as awarding them according to the sale volume”, said Zhu Yuehua. Now the center has more than 30 researchers who keep developing a new product every quarter to cater to local consumers. Soon after that, UTEC spread the model to Sweden, Israel and other countries.
More than hiring foreign design talents, UTEC has also employed foreign sale talents who have expanded the markets from Middle East and South Asia to Europe and raised its yearly export volume from more than 1million dollars to nearly 10million dollars. UTEC has also set up offices abroad and holding companies in Russia, Italy and Germany, which have all achieved good economic benefits.
The foreign design and sales speed up UTEC’s reaching to the ends of the smile curve. In recent three years, the low-carbon and energy-efficient products have been replacing the traditional products at a rate of 15%. Now, more than 60% of its products are highly technical LED and solar lamps, the main profit source of the company. In the first half of this year, UTEC has successfully applied for more than 20 domestic and 22 foreign design patents.
During the first half year UTEC’s sale has achieved 181million Yuan with a year-on-year growth of 15%. The export price is more than twice that of the domestic counterparts.  The UME outdoor lamp has made way to major supermarkets in EU and the independent brands sold in Germany this year has exceeded 30million, with the profit rate more than 30%. 
“Enterprises should upgrade actively and update traditional products gradually rather than wait for the next crisis”, said Zhu. “UTEC will switch from OEM and ODM to OBM, trying to achieve a yearly sale volume of 1billion Yuan at the end of the twelfth five year plan period and become a world famous lighting supplier.”