German media: How can "Made in China" and "Made in Germany" achieve a win-win?
Ningde Times has also attracted the Fraunhofer Institute to set up a "Battery Innovation Technology Center" (Fraunhofer IKTS BITC) next to its factory, directly conducting scientific research cooperation. Currently, the focus of their collaboration is on battery expansion phenomena, hoping to understand the expansion patterns to extend the battery's service life. Roland Weidl, director of the research center, told DW that such collaborative research "is a win-win for industry, research, and economy, where everyone can learn from each other at all levels." He pointed out that his research institution and Ningde Times have their own strengths, "the current collaboration can only be viable if both sides benefit."
Weidl believes that the success of Chinese technology companies is inseparable from Beijing's continuous investment in future fields. "The key is that research funding should not be suddenly interrupted, which unfortunately often happens in Germany." He said that in the current battery technology field, China's leading advantage is too great, and Europe can no longer catch up, but in the next generation and the generation after that, Europe still leads, "the continuity and planning of research funding are very important for us."
Ban Kaimei, a China expert at Rödl & Partner Consulting Group, pointed out that Chinese companies benefited greatly from Western companies' technology transfer in the early years. Now, Europe can indeed draw lessons from this, using its huge domestic market to attract investment and set conditions: "We can tell Chinese companies: welcome to invest here, but with the condition that you produce here, create local value, and share your intellectual property and technology. China's large-scale subsidy strategy is unsustainable and not worth us Europeans imitating; however, 'trading market for technology' is part of China's industrial strategy that we can learn from."
Currently, the EU is considering setting a series of preconditions for Chinese companies' investments in Europe, including technology transfer, use of European local suppliers and labor force. Bloomberg cited sources saying that the involved areas include key industries such as automobiles and batteries. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said that the EU welcomes foreign investment, but these investments must be "real investments"; this means that the investments should create new jobs in the EU and involve the transfer of technology and intellectual property, "just like what European companies did when investing in China."
Source: DW
Original: toutiao.com/article/1852892428941447/
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