This is the tenth time for Roland Gerke, Chairman and president of BSH Home Appliance Holding China, to participate in the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress (PPC), which had its 5th session of the 12th congress in Nanjing Great Hall of the People in 2017.
Having been in Jiangsu for many years, Mr. Gerke witnessed the fast development of Jiangsu during the past 12th Five-year Plan period, especially in the field of intelligent manufacturing. "As one of the main manufacturing hubs in China, Jiangsu is to upgrade manufacturing and products into innovation. I was impressed by the World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit in December 2016 in Nanjing. I think Jiangsu has played a prominent role in changing to the manufacturing 2025."
In response to China's strategy of "Made in China 2025" and "Industrial 4.0", BSH has pioneered in bringing in German solutions for intelligent manufacturing. "We've also taken measures to upgrade innovation, so we invested more than 400 million RMB (about 58.3 million US$) into new R&D centre in Nanjing," introduced Mr. Gerke. This R&D centre is to be equipped with most advanced facilities and technologies, focusing on smart home appliance and manufacturing.
When talking about the future development for Jiangsu, Mr. Gerke pointed out the importance of talent development. On one hand, the government should attract high-profile talents to Nanjing and keep them here. And on the other, they need to put more emphasis on blue collar workers.
In 1996, BSH began partnering with domestic higher vocational colleges. It established the BSHEA Training Center and introduced the German Dual system of education to China. "We have every year a class of workers who work and also partly learn in the vocational school. Manufacturing is changing into intelligent manufacturing. Machinery changes, and intelligent manufacturing needs also additional skills," said Mr. Gerke with a big smile.
Ever since the day he stepped into Jiangsu, Gerke has been dedicated to supporting and funding public welfare activities as well as cultural exchanges, for which he was awarded with several high-level honorary titles. He said he really appreciated the opportunity to review the work report of the Jiangsu provincial government and also learn about the future targets at the governmental congress.
（Editor / Qi Daozheng；Mengxi Li）
