Copyright 2024 - Ningbo Life / Ningbo Expat

Overseas studying talents inspected environment for entrepreneurship and innovation

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

LED Wall Lamp of UTEC Electric Awarded in UK

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.”

Ningbo exports of Christmas supplies going up

Although Christmas is still months away, quite a lot of Ningbo companies are producing at full capacity Christmas supplies. Statistics from Ningbo Customs show that in the first seven months, Ningbo exported 4,463 tons of Christmas supplies at the value of 21.09 million US dollars, up 20.4% and 18.6% respectively over the same period of last year. The exports of July stood at 11.87 million US dollars, exceeding the total of the first six months. The main destinations of exports are EU (9.258 million US dollars), the United States (3.459 million US dollars) and Brazil (2.468 million US dollars), and they accounted for 72% of the total volume of export. Private companies took the lead in exporting with a volume of 14.7 million US dollars, increasing by 19.3% over the same period of last year, and they accounted for 69.7 percent of the total. However, the exporting price declined by a small margin compared with the same period of last year. The average price of the Christmas supplies is down by 1.5%, at 4,726 US dollars per ton.

This year, the great need for Christmas supplies abroad guarantees a peak season for related enterprises. However, due to the rise of the cost caused by the appreciation of RMB, the profit margin is shrinking for many exporters in spite of the increasing foreign orders.

Ningbo ICB and Youngor Won China Brand Gold Award

The Ningbo Industry and Commerce Bureau and the Youngor Group won the Trademark Use Award and Trademark Protection Award respectively. The China Brand Gold Award was appraised the first time. Only 20 institutions and companies are entitled to the honor.
The China Brand Gold Award was cosponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, to commend institutions and individuals doing great job in trademark registration, use, protection and management. This time, seven brand innovation awards, seven trademark use awards and six trademark protection awards were given. 
In recent years, the Ningbo Industry and Commerce Bureau has innovated on the regulating measures, reinforced supervision and guidance, and promote the brand economy. By the end of June, the city has had 76155 registered trademarks, with the internationally registered trademarks and geographical indication trademarks ranking the first place Zhejiang. As a result, the city has been designated as a city of brands, and a pilot city in implementing branding strategy.
With 30 years of development, the Youngor Group has taken an active part in international competition through independent branding and technical innovation. As a prestigious transnational it has built up tremendous brand strength.

Ningbo to popularize energy-saving lamps

After three years'promotion, China is to continue popularizing the use of energy-saving lamps during the 12th Five-year Plan Period. According to Zhejiang Provincial Commission of Economy and Information Technology, this year the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance allocated Zhejiang Province 7 million high-efficiency lighting products, and Ningbo is committed to popularize 1.1 million energy-saving lamps, and in this way the city may save over 200 million kilowatt hours of power.

Since 2008, the country has implemented the three-year financial subsidies policy for high-efficiency lighting products, with 50 million energy-saving lamps promoted each year. The policy continues in effect this year, and it is quite likely to be in effect for the next three years.

According to the above mentioned policy, the way of giving subsidy remains almost the same as it used to, that is, the government subsidies will be given indirectly to the bid-winning companies. For bulk users like companies, the financial subsidies will take up 30% of the price, and for personal users, 50%. However, one thing is different. Unlike the last years when each person was subsidized for 30 lamps, this year, the number is restricted to be only 10 and the person applying for the subsidies must put down his or her personal information.

f t g m