Frank Pitzer, general manager of Roche Diagnostics' factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu province When Frank Pitzer first visited China, in 2000, he could tell the country was developing rapidly by looking at the infrastructure being built. Two years ago, when he officially relocated to the country as general manager of Swiss healthcare giant Roche Diagnostics' new factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, development was still the theme, but with tremendous changes due to a new focus on research and development. Pitzer joined in the Suzhou project in October 2013. He flew regularly to China for preparatory work in 2015 and moved to the city in early 2016 to break ground on the project. He said the new position was exciting, because very few people have the privilege to build a factory from scratch. Roche Diagnostics Suzhou, the company's first production base in the Asia-Pacific region, is scheduled to roll out its first products for sale in Asia this year. The investment in the new factory, covering some 48,000 square meters in the 24-year-old China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, was about 450 million Swiss francs ($472 million). When completed, it is expected to employ about 400 local people. In the long-run, production of 102 products for the Asian market, targeting metabolic, cardiovascular and hepatic diseases, among others, will be transferred from Germany to the Suzhou factory. Pitzer has established a five-person R&D team in Suzhou that is likely to expand. The facility is already cooperating with local universities and professors in other parts of the world in the hope of building up Roche's R&D strength in China. We want to make sure that the interests of Chinese patients will be better reflected within the global development framework, Pitzer said. He said he had noticed a significant improvement in the quality of Chinese academic studies and the output of China's universities over the past three years, laying a solid foundation for good R&D work. However, while innovation was happening in China, it was doing so in a spotty, uncoordinated manner, Pitzer said. But things will change given all the investments that China has made in universities and institutions, and in industries such as healthcare and life science. Former science and technology minister Wan Gang said early this year that China's investment in R&D last year rose 14 percent year-on-year to 1.76 trillion yuan ($279 billion) - which was 2.1 percent of the country's GDP. According to World Bank statistics, spending on R&D in the United States in 2015 equaled 2.8 percent of that country's GDP, compared with 2.9 percent in Germany and 3.3 percent in Japan. China should become one of the leading countries in terms of innovation, and grow into a major technology driving force worldwide by 2050, Wan said. While China may have begun focusing on innovation later than some other countries, Pitzer said there is no significant gap between China and those countries in terms of infrastructure and critical thinking. For science practitioners, critical thinking is vital, he said. I do see that among the employees in our facility. They can make their own decisions and apply knowledge when necessary. China is doing everything right. A lot of innovation will come from the country in the future. It won't take long. custom made bracelets ukcustomize rubber wristbandsmake your own silicone bracelet kitdifferent rubber band braceletscustom wristbands australia
ZDK-03 model [Photo/VCG] Designer says few nations are capable of designing, building such aircraft China is a major arms exporter, but its image in the international weapons market has long been linked to old, second-tier products sold at relatively low prices. Domestic defense technology companies have been sparing no effort over the past several years to improve their reputation by promoting modern, advanced products featuring the latest technology. One recent effort is an airborne early-warning and control aircraft described by its designer as world-class and best of its kind. Hu Mingchun, head of the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology in Jiangsu province, said there are only a handful of nations including China, the United States and Israel that can design, build and export such cutting-edge hardware as early-warning planes. And he said the KLC-7 Silk Road Eye developed by his institute is a generation ahead of its rivals in the global market. According to Hu, the KLC-7 integrates a mechanical scanning system with active electronically scanned arrays - two popular radar detection methods - and features the latest digital technology and processing capacity, which is much more robust than previous models. With state-of-the-art electronics, the system boasts better anti-jamming functions, a longer detection range and stronger target-tracking ability and optimized algorithms, he said. It was designed based on our rich experience and expertise, Hu said. All of its core technologies and components were developed on our own. The product represents the latest technologies and is very competitive in the international market. Several nations have expressed strong interest in the KLC-7 and want to open talks with the institute, he said. For our users, the KLC-7 Silk Road Eye is the best solution to their needs because it fits perfectly in sophisticated and rapidly changing combat situations and can detect and track targets from afar, Hu said. The farther you can see in combat, the higher the chance that you will win. Therefore, anyone who uses the Silk Road Eye will be able to extensively magnify the situational awareness and operational capabilities of military forces. The electronics institute in Nanjing, which is part of State-owned defense giant China Electronics Technology Group Corp, is the country's top developer of military surveillance radar. Its products have been sold to more than 20 nations in Africa and Asia, it said. Reports have said it designed and manufactured the radars mounted on ZDK-03 early-warning aircraft that China exported to Pakistan. In a picture released by China Electronics Technology Group Corp, the Silk Road Eye appears similar to the ZDK-03, which means it is also mounted on the Y-9 turboprop transport plane built by Aviation Industry Corp of China.
