Scharping Came to Jieyang for the Fourth Time

with Better Conditions for China-Germany Cooperation

    July 8^th, 2013，as the consultant of Jieyang municipal government, former German defense minister, former chairman of Social Democratic Party, and CEO of RSBK GmbH, Rudolf Scharping made his fourth visit to Jieyang, with a delegation of 11 people from several well-known German enterprises, having an 8-hour talk with the Metal Enterprises Union of Jieyang for China-Germany cooperation. After the communication and discussion, Berkenhoff GmbH, a German renowned company producing high-tech precision wires, expresses a wish of settling down ZhongDe Metal Eco-City and expanding its Asia-Pacific market.

    Berkenhoff GmbH, a professional manufacturer of copper wires, with a history of more than 120 years. Berkenhoff specializes in producing various wires with the diameter ranging from 0.02mm to 8 mm which are widely applied to fields of electronic communication, large scale equipments, auto parts and articles for daily use, etc., reaching an annual sales value of nearly Euro 100 million and enjoying a high reputation in European and American markets. According to the managing director of Berkenhoff Askan Duhnke, the company is seeking for the opportunity of entering China to expand its Asia-Pacific market. Through the present investigation,  Berkenhoff is interested in the complete infrastructure of ZhongDe Metal Eco-City, the solid foundation of Jieyang metal industry, the broad prospect of Chinese market and Jieyang’s great attention to the vocational education, for ZhongDe Dual College of Applied Science in future is able to provide the high-level professional workers to enterprises. After the conference, an initial intention of cooperation was achieved by both sides, and a schedule of entering the industrial park was planned as well.

    The German institutes and enterprises visiting Jieyang also include IWAR institute TU Darmstadt, Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH and Nexpert AG. Prof. Dr. Ing. Martin Wagner at IWAR institute TU Darmstadt delivered an excellent speech about municipal wastewater treatment to the Metal Enterprises Union of Jieyang, introducing the SEMIZENTRAL approach which was presented at the Shanghai World Fair and the practice of the approach in Qingdao. After the speech, both sides had a further discussion on the planning and construction of ZhongDe Metal Eco-City as an ecological and energy-saving city and the possibility of cooperation with Germany.

    Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH is a company with a history of 160 years, with business covering 40 countries and regions, reaching an annual sales value of Euro 4.2 billion. Alexander Hinz, vice president in Carl Zeiss in China, China Innovation and R&D Center, expressed the cooperative intention with ZhongDe Dual College of Applied Science and pointed out the possibility of introducing a production line of optical inspection equipments. Thomas Kresse, as one of partners in Nexpert AG, also expressed his intention to help Jieyang enterprises with the investment, mergers and acquisitions in Germany.

    Since the cooperation agreement on ZhongDe Metal Eco-City witnessed by Guangdong Governor Zhu Xiaodan was signed on his first visit to Jieyang in February of 2013, Rudolf Scharping has been to Jieyang for four times, carrying out the items of China-Germany cooperation, promoting the construction of the industrial park, and introducing enterprises entering ZhongDe Metal Eco-City. Invited by Mr. Scharpinga, a delegation from the Metal Enterprises Union of Jieyang will make a third-time visit to Germany by the end of this month, having further investigation in German metal enterprises, German industrial parks, German vocational education institutes and German science&technology design institutes, to carry out more entering projects of China-Germany cooperation.