Reichert: Deeply Engaged in Hebei's Development
Not long ago, the provincial government held an award ceremony in Shijiazhuang, awarding 20 foreign experts the "Yan Zhao Friendship Award." This is the 13th "Yan Zhao Friendship Award" selection and commendation event held in our province.
These foreign experts have not only made outstanding contributions in their respective fields but have also, through their work and life, observed and witnessed the development and changes in Hebei and even China from the perspective of foreigners.
Reichert
Reichert, the current president of Wirtgen (China) Machinery Co., Ltd., from Germany, said when receiving the medal and certificate awarded by Governor Xu Qin, "The development of Hebei today is very rapid. The coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area, and the preparation for the Winter Olympics have opened up new opportunities for international development in Hebei. We want to stay here, and we believe we can create the future here!"
China's Development Includes All Its People
"When attending the 'Yan Zhao Friendship Award' award ceremony in Shijiazhuang, I chatted with some foreign experts in the same group and found that I was actually the one who has been in China the longest among them." On December 23, in the office of Wirtgen (China) Machinery Co., Ltd. in Langfang, 65-year-old Reichert proudly shared his "unexpected discovery" with reporters, "Since I took over the business of Wirtgen China in 1988, it has been more than 30 years now, and I am an old friend of China."
Wirtgen Group, a well-known road construction machinery manufacturer in the world, had its road construction machinery come to China as early as 1982. Reichert joined Wirtgen Group in 1986 and was sent to Hong Kong two years later, responsible for Wirtgen's business in China and the Southeast Asian market. "At that time, it was the era of rapid development of China's reform and opening up. We believed that we must not ignore this huge market."
In the 1990s, Reichert's fate with China began after he went to Hong Kong. He quickly realized that the demand for infrastructure construction-related machinery in rapidly developing China, especially road construction machinery, was unlimited. For a forward-looking multinational company, "we must not wait until the market is fully mature before participating. So we decided to localize production in China."
When choosing the location of the Chinese factory, Reichert and his colleagues had inspected several development zones around Beijing. By coincidence, they came to Langfang, "Langfang gave me a different feeling. It was not only policy preferences but more importantly, the local investment promotion team made people feel particularly enthusiastic, sincere, and very professional."
In 2003, Wirtgen built its first factory in Langfang, and Reichert began to lead Wirtgen's successful development over 17 years.
"In these more than 30 years in China, we have not only provided road construction equipment and construction technology, but Wirtgen and I have basically participated in and witnessed the entire development process of China's road transportation system." Reichert said, "Transportation is the field that best reflects the speed and level of development of a country and region. Therefore, to some extent, we have witnessed the rapid development of China."
Reichert introduced that more than ten years ago, they introduced hot recycling technology into the Jingjintang (Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu) Expressway project. At that time, there were not many expressways in Hebei. By 2019, the total length of expressways in Hebei had reached 7,475 kilometers. In addition to expressways, the total length of rural roads in Hebei is also close to 170,000 kilometers, and there were 9,741 kilometers of newly rebuilt roads that year.
"Some people say that China is an 'infrastructure maniac,' I think this is not only an appreciation of China's strong infrastructure capabilities but also a reminder that this kind of infrastructure is targeted. What it reflects is not only scale and speed but also to make this construction benefit the future, benefit urban and rural areas, and benefit everyone." Reichert said, "For more than 30 years, the whole world has been developing rapidly. I have also been to other countries, but the development of some countries is uneven. Only China's development has always insisted on taking all its people along."
"Hebei is a province with a developed transportation system. I am proud to be able to help Hebei's road construction with our technology." Reichert cited an example, starting from the end of August 2020, Tangshan used Wirtgen's tracked on-site cold recycling machine, wheeled on-site cold recycling machine, and cooperated with Vogele pavers and Hamm compactors, both under Wirtgen, to carry out foam asphalt cold recycling repair construction on the outer ring road of Guye.
When it comes to technical issues, Reichert's language became more rigorous. He specifically described in detail to the reporter the details of road regeneration:
During construction, based on the new generation of Wirtgen cold recycling machines, a fleet of synchronized foam asphalt on-site cold recycling vehicles is arranged in a row to mill and break the old asphalt pavement, while precise proportions of water, cement, and foam asphalt are synchronously mixed by auxiliary vehicles in front, generating new foam asphalt cold recycling mixtures, which are then conveyed to the hopper of the following Vogele asphalt paver for direct paving. After paving, the mixture is efficiently compacted by Hamm single steel wheel roller, double steel wheel roller, and pneumatic tire roller to form a brand-new foam asphalt regeneration structural layer. Then, an asphalt wear layer is laid on top of it, completing the road maintenance operation, forming a road surface with excellent flexibility and higher bearing capacity.
"These machines cooperate and work efficiently. They can regenerate six meters of road surface per minute." Reichert once again revealed a proud expression, "This means that using our machinery, the entire lane can be regenerated at once, and people do not have to worry about road closures for repairs, they can enjoy the convenience brought by improved transportation faster and better."
Made-in-China is Going Global
On December 23rd, Reichert took reporters on a tour of the workshop at the Langfang factory. It's a busy and orderly modern factory that reflects the German manufacturing company's rigor and meticulousness in every aspect.
Reporters noticed that above each production line, two timers were hanging, one displaying "beat time" and the other showing "remaining time."
"Production is like music, and the production line is a flowing movement of a symphony," said Reichert. "Beat time means that this part of the production line must be completed within the specified time, otherwise, it cannot move on to the next part. The remaining time is a reminder to workers of how much time is left in this beat."
Another aspect that reflects rigor is the parts rack next to the assembly line. Dozens of small boxes are arranged on a row of shelves, each filled with various types of components. Different types of components are meticulously arranged.
"More importantly, the distance between these small boxes and the workstations is also different. Boxes with high usage rates are placed closer for easy access, while those with low usage rates are placed further back," a worker on the workshop assembly line told reporters. "Before, we knew that German engineers were rigorous, but we didn't understand, and we thought it was too rigid. Now, these management details are commonplace, and they do improve work efficiency significantly."
"In the 1980s, we brought Wirtgen products, and after local production, what we brought was technology originating from Germany," Reichert said.
As the head of Wirtgen China, Reichert has always believed that focusing on local environmental protection is an important responsibility of being a "corporate citizen." Under his leadership, Wirtgen introduced the research and development achievements of headquarters' environmentally friendly technology—road cold and hot recycling technology—to China.
The application of this technology realizes the recycling and utilization of old road materials to regenerate new roads during road surface repairs, significantly reducing material costs, saving resources, being environmentally friendly, and shortening the construction period. So far, Wirtgen's asphalt pavement regeneration technology has been successfully applied in China for 20 years, and over 300 million square meters of Chinese roads have been maintained and regenerated using its high-tech equipment, saving tens of billions of RMB in fiscal expenditure cumulatively.
In addition, facing increasingly serious environmental problems caused by solid waste, Reichert introduced mobile solid waste resource utilization technology, which has mature application experience abroad, to China.
Once introduced, the technology has shown significant environmental and economic effects. Its successful application in Xuchang, Henan, and Huainan, Anhui, has been listed as a local typical demonstration base and a national construction waste regeneration research base. In the large-scale renovation project in Luohu, Shenzhen, in 2017, the successful application of this technology realized on-site treatment and regeneration utilization of construction waste, achieving good social and economic benefits.
Similarly, in the construction of the Xiong'an New Area, the use of mobile crushing and screening equipment from KLEEMANN has facilitated the on-site recycling of demolished construction waste, thus realizing the concept of "green demolition and renovation." This has played a significant exemplary role in promoting the path of green development for the Xiong'an New Area construction.
"In the 17 years since the factory was built in Langfang, we have not only felt the rapid development of the Chinese market but also felt that the overall industrial level in China is progressing rapidly. For example, in our road construction machinery manufacturing field, we feel that domestic brands and manufacturers have made significant progress in technology and manufacturing levels," Reichert said. In recent years, some domestic large brands in China, such as XCMG, Liugong, Sany, and Zoomlion, have increased their efforts in their respective research and development departments, and equipment production levels have developed rapidly, some of which have also gone abroad.
Reichert admitted that whether in the domestic market or the international market, with the overall improvement of the manufacturing industry, competition from within the industry is gradually increasing, but this also gives him the motivation to maintain a leading position in technology and quality.
At the construction site of the second phase of the Langfang new factory project, Reichert specially introduced the setting of the future R&D center to reporters. He said that since 2011, Wirtgen has begun to develop and manufacture equipment that can better meet local needs for the Chinese market. While ensuring that product quality and standards are no different from those globally, on the one hand, they continue to increase local investment, promote localized manufacturing of supporting systems, and in the future will provide more local customized models and larger capacity supply for local customers. On the other hand, local research and development functions have been introduced into the Langfang factory to allow world-class brands to take root in China.
Reichert said that they have always emphasized talent localization, with 99% of employees recruited being localized talents in China. As of August 2020, they have created more than 530 jobs locally in Hebei alone, and have introduced more than 30 high-educated research and technical professionals.
In addition, Wirtgen focuses on long-term talent cultivation, carries out school-enterprise cooperation talent projects, not only providing fresh blood for enterprise talent cultivation but also helping to solve employment problems and cultivating more useful talents for society.
We Want to Stay Here and Create the Future
"For more than a decade, Wirtgen's headquarters in China has never left Langfang. It's not that there haven't been invitations from other regions for us to settle down, but Hebei Province attaches great importance to talent attraction and intellectual input, implementing more open and proactive policies, which makes us feel warmth," said Reichert. "In the past two years, Wirtgen (China)'s sales have approached nearly 3 billion RMB, the second-phase factory is about to be completed, and plans for the third phase are underway."
"We want to stay here, and we believe that we can create the future here!" Reichert said.
In Reichert's view, due to the continuous strengthening of the Chinese government's investment in infrastructure, and it will remain at a high level for a considerable period of time, the field of engineering machinery, especially the road construction machinery industry, "China is the largest market, and we believe that in the next 10-15 years, China's ranking as the first won't change."
From November 5th to 10th, Wirtgen Group, participating in the China International Import Expo for the first time, welcomed guests from all walks of life, signed contracts with new and old customers continuously, and achieved impressive results within six days.
During a media interview, Reichert revealed a detail. When he first came to China in 1988, in Shanghai, he could hardly see any buildings on the other side of the Huangpu River, only vast wasteland. But now, looking out at the Huangpu River from afar, both banks are brightly lit with a charming river view, "This also indirectly reflects the rapid development and changes in China over the past 30 years."
The development of Wirtgen (China) has also benefited from the dividends of China's development.
On December 15th, the Wirtgen (China) 2020 Supplier Conference was held in Langfang City, with nearly 200 supplier representatives gathered to look forward to future development. Reichert expressed confidence to his partners at this conference: this year, despite severe challenges to the global economy, China's economy as a whole has still maintained growth, and Wirtgen (China) not only quickly achieved business recovery but also achieved certain growth.
"Today's Hebei is developing rapidly, full of vitality and opportunities. The coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area, and the preparations for the Winter Olympics have brought new opportunities for international development in Hebei. With these new opportunities, more and more foreign talents will come to work and live in Hebei," Reichert said.
In fact, Reichert has long been deeply involved in the development of Hebei. "In the past two years, the scale of road construction in Hebei has been large, and our machinery has been involved in both highways and rural roads." At the same time, major events such as the construction of Winter Olympics-related infrastructure and Xiong'an New Area have also had varying degrees of involvement.
"Like many others, I now live in Beijing and commute to Langfang for work every day, which gives me a firsthand experience of the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei," said Reichert, who has witnessed China's rapid development over more than 30 years, from Hong Kong to Beijing, and from Beijing to Langfang. He clearly feels that Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta will become world-class urban agglomerations, especially the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, which will open up new vast space for the economic and social development of Hebei.
More Updates for You
On December 9th, the provincial government awarded 20 foreign experts the "Yan Zhao Friendship Award," recognizing their outstanding contributions to the economic and social development of the province.
The "Yan Zhao Friendship Award" is the highest honor awarded by the provincial government to foreign experts. This year's award winners include 20 experts such as Reichert, Nikita Gampel, and Diane Hildebrandt from 15 countries, working in fields such as education, equipment manufacturing, biomedicine, and information technology in Hebei.
Since 2003, the province has held 13 sessions of the "Yan Zhao Friendship Award" selection and commendation activities, with 259 outstanding foreign experts receiving awards.
In recent years, Hebei has focused on high-quality development for the future, promoting the high-end, intelligent, and green transformation of traditional industries such as steel and equipment manufacturing. It actively cultivates strategic emerging industries such as next-generation information technology and artificial intelligence, strengthens industries with advantages such as energy-efficient passive houses, rehabilitation appliances, and emergency equipment, and lays out future industries such as hydrogen energy and blockchain, creating new economic growth points, and accelerating the development of humanities education and social and cultural undertakings. These major opportunities and key areas hold unlimited potential, providing a broad stage for talents of all kinds, including foreign experts, to further display their talents, innovate, and start businesses.
Currently, the total number of foreign experts in the province has reached 12,000, with concentrations in cities such as Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Langfang, and Baoding, all exceeding 1,000. Cangzhou, Xingtai, Handan, and other cities have more than 500 foreign experts. Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Hengshui, as well as Xinji and Dingzhou, have fewer foreign experts, with fewer than 300.
At the same time, an average of 10,000 foreign experts come to the province every year for cooperation, investigation, and academic exchanges.
With the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area, and the preparations for the Winter Olympics, as well as the continuous improvement of economic and social development and internationalization levels, it is predicted that by 2022, the total number of foreign experts in the province will exceed 20,000, and by 2025, the number will reach 50,000.
In addition to the areas where foreign experts are currently concentrated, there will be a significant increase in the number of foreign experts in areas with fewer foreign experts as characteristic economies develop.
The preparation for the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics will form a characteristic industry of the Winter Olympics, focusing on the development of ice and snow sports and industries, which will attract a large number of foreign experts in the ice and snow industry to work in Zhangjiakou. Chengde City is actively creating an international tourism city, with Xinglong County establishing a permanent international conference site, which will attract a group of foreign experts to Chengde for tourism or work. Hengshui City, combined with the rise of strategic emerging industries, high-end innovative talents are the main force for the development of strategic emerging industries, and a group of foreign high-end experts will be introduced to promote industrial development. In the process of promoting the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area, strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the international community is the only way for the new area's planning and construction. It is expected that in the coming years, the number of foreign experts in Xiong'an New Area will increase significantly.
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