The NUAA-US delegation, Nanda, and government of Jiangsu have done a great job preparing for the visit. On the delegation side, presentations of focus groups are well prepared and presented. There are total of 23 presentations ranging from Finance, Investment, Management, Biology and Pharmaceutical, Materials, Software, and IC. The presentations were conducted simultaneously in 3 separate conference rooms which were fully packed with audiences. A few delegates come with their own business plans targeting online business, pharmaceutical, and new technologies.
From the hosting side, NUAA, Office of Foreigners of Jiangsu (OOF), and government branches of Jiangsu and hosting cities have done tremendous amount of work preparing for the visit. From printing name tags, broche of the delegation, hotel arrangement, to planning of visit to economical development zones, and belonging companies and labs, it is hardly to tell that how much effort has been made towards the organization work. Mr. Gao Peng, NUAA vice president and secretary, Ms. Guo Dongmei, Office of Foreigners of Jiangsu, and Ms. Li Xiaohua, Secretary of the delegation accompanied the delegation through out the trip.
The visit started on 6/23/2007 in Nanjing and concluded on 6/30/2007 in Suzhou. Jiangsu government hosted a welcome dinner in Xianwu hotel on 6/23 designating the beginning of the home coming event. Mr. Han, Director of OOF and Ms. Guo, Vice Director of 组织部 of Jiangsu Province, attended the dinner party and made welcoming speeches. Opening ceremony of the visit was held in Nanda the next day, 6/24/2007. Mr. Zhang Taoling, Vice Governor of Jiangsu Province, Mr. Hong Ying Xin, Party Secretary of Nanjing University spoke to the audiences and delegates. The event was the first in the history of Nanda that established overseas alumni coming home as a delegation aiming at contributing to economical development of Jiangsu. Both speakers expressed their gratefulness to the willingness of the delegation and hoping that the ideals and willingness to serve will result in successful business enterprises in Jiangsu. Technical presentation sessions of the delegation followed the opening ceremony.
During the seven and half day visit event, delegates met with many high tech industrial parks in Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi, and Suzhou and their belonging counties. Every place we have been, we felt deeply that the policy of reform and opening to the world has made tremendous impact on people’s lives and such a change generates even more demands on advanced technologies. Today’s economic development heavily relies on transition from labor intense factories to high-tech oriented enterprises. This is what we can contribute.
In Nanjing, delegates visited Jiangning Industrial Park , south east of Nanjing, and new university town of Xianling. In Xianling, we also visited Xian Shen Pharmaceutical, a publicly traded company in NYSE. It is amazing to see the company grow from a two-man “suitcase” company to a public owned company in 12 years.
On 6/25, we arrived at Zhenjiang and visited company started by 2 alumni from US, Huang Zhenchun and Chen Lin. In Changzhou, we toured a Taiwan company manufacturing optical lenses for cameras, where we see with our own eyes of what is so called “labor intensive” industry. Another place we went is “Industrial Park for Overseas Students” in Wujing County, which is a privately operated company by Gong Yi, a Chinese overseas student from the US. It is amazing to see numerous buildings in previous farm fields. Most of buildings are empty so far.
Leaving Wujing, a county of Changzhou, we came to Wuxi, a place famous of fishes and rice on 6/27. We did have a chance to taste delicious food of fishes from Tai Lake and other locally grown vegetables. Comparing to Zhenjing and Changzhou, Wuxi is relatively “developed” city. Many famous names of fortune 500 companies, Sony, Panasonic, Goodyear, can be seen across the industrial parks. One of the Chinese companies is Suntech, the solar energy company started by a Chinese student and now publicly traded in NYSE. The campus of Suntech is eye-catching.
The last stop of the visit is Suzhou. There are 2 industrial parks in Suzhou, 高新区and 工业园区. Both parks were well prepared for our arrival. Officers of the parks accompanied our tours and we visited many campuses of the parks. Comparing to all the industrial park we visited, the工业园区 is one of the best, especially for high tech oriented companies. It has modern office buildings, residential areas, and also colleges, universities, and graduate institutions providing work force for the industry. Park operations are regulated by set of rules, such as how to bring in new companies. More importantly, it has a venture capital fund of assets over 10 billion RMB in the park, funding startup companies and new businesses. Strong financial background and ability to support new businesses are the most distinctive characteristic of cities and parks. Living environment is also the best among all the parks, which is well planned and developed. The visit concluded on 6/30 in Suzhou.
To summarize the visit in one word: it would never be a better time than today to start your own business in China, if you have a great passion and a solid business plan.
