“Belt and Road”- Made in Germany and Italy

Text by Zhao Lei Translation by Tao Wenjia Photos by CFP

“Belt and Road”- Made in Germany and Italy

Text by Zhao Lei Translation by Tao Wenjia Photos by CFP

Some believe that there are two countries in Europe which treat manufacturing as their most fundamental industry. One is Germany and the other is ltaly.

“Made in Germany” is Germany's gold brand which represents quality and brilliance. Among all 32 different categories of prod-ucts in the mechanical and equipment industries, 16 ones which are ranked the top in the world in terms of export amount are from Germany. Automobile, machinery manufacturing, chemical medicine, as well as electronics are the four traditional pillar industries in Germany. The secret of their success is that they at-tach great importance to research and development to constantly improve their core competitiveness. Compared to them, Chinese corporations are good at gradual evolution, but lack break-throughs in innovation. What we can learn from brands that are “Made in Germany” is: if we really want to sell products through the Silk Road, we must provide high-quality products with a reliable brand. Thus, Chinese corporations on the“Road and Belt” need to have brand awareness, corporate culture and social re-sponsibility.

For instance, the Yangjiang city in Guangdong is famous for its production of scissors and knives,however, few outside of Guangdong know this. So it may be a good idea for Yangjiang to reach out and work with German corporations to produce the Chinese version of “Zwilling”.

ltaly is famous for “the kingdom of small and medium busi-nesses”. Any “Belt and Road” cities with a plan to develop their small and medium businesses should take initiative to learn from the ltalians. Food, garment and furniture are the three traditional industries that the ltalians are proud of. Small and medium busi-nesses in ltaly play an important role in boosting national econ-omy and sustaining job market. Nearly 82% of the country's job opportunities are related to small and medium businesses However, they are currently facing economic hardship, so they are more than willing to explore the Chinese market, and the Chi-nese market in turn needs to be ready to reach out. lt is ex-pected that more Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises will go to ltaly to learn skills and valuable experiences. And it is hard to imagine that the ltalians would turn down such promising “students”. To a certain extent, small and medium-sized enter-prises are the barometer of the economic health of a country and a barometer of the vibrancy of the economy of Silk Road.

Zhao Lei

professor at the Institu te for International Stra tegic Studies of the Pa rty School of the Centr al Committee of the CP C, a director of the Res earch Office for Interna tional Relations and Na tional Unity. Mr. Zhao heads a key research project on the Belt and Road Initiative at CPS, and is the founder of th e forum “The Belt and R oad 100”.

趙磊

中共中央黨校國(guó)際戰(zhàn)略研究院教授、國(guó)際關(guān)系與國(guó)家統(tǒng)一研究室主任、中央黨校“一帶一路”重點(diǎn)研究課題主持人，“一帶一路百人論壇”發(fā)起人。

“一帶一路”與德意制造

有人認(rèn)為，歐洲有兩個(gè)國(guó)家是以制造業(yè)為基礎(chǔ)的，一個(gè)是德國(guó)，另一個(gè)是意大利。

“德國(guó)制造”是德國(guó)的金字招牌，代表著品質(zhì)與卓越。在機(jī)械設(shè)備業(yè)32個(gè)產(chǎn)品領(lǐng)域中，德國(guó)產(chǎn)品在16個(gè)領(lǐng)域?yàn)槭澜绯隹诘谝弧Ｆ?、機(jī)械制造、化工醫(yī)藥和電子電氣是德傳統(tǒng)四大支柱產(chǎn)業(yè)。德國(guó)企業(yè)成功的秘訣，是高度重視研發(fā)，不斷提高核心競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。而中國(guó)企業(yè)的短板是漸進(jìn)性創(chuàng)新不少，但突破性創(chuàng)新不夠?！暗聡?guó)制造”對(duì)中國(guó)的啟示是：絲綢之路要有產(chǎn)品可賣，就要做真正有品質(zhì)、有品牌的產(chǎn)品。因此，致力于“一帶一路”的中國(guó)企業(yè)要有品牌意識(shí)，要做有文化、有社會(huì)責(zé)任的中國(guó)企業(yè)。以城市為例，廣東陽(yáng)江是中國(guó)“刀剪之鄉(xiāng)”，但在廣東之外，很少有人知道它。因此，陽(yáng)江可主動(dòng)同德國(guó)展開(kāi)刀剪產(chǎn)業(yè)合作，打造“中國(guó)版的雙立人”。

意大利有“中小企業(yè)王國(guó)”的殊榮，致力于發(fā)展中小企業(yè)的中國(guó)絲路城市應(yīng)該主動(dòng)對(duì)接意大利。食品、服裝、家具是意大利的傳統(tǒng)優(yōu)勢(shì)產(chǎn)業(yè)，俗稱“3F產(chǎn)業(yè)”。意大利中小企業(yè)在國(guó)民經(jīng)濟(jì)和解決就業(yè)方面都發(fā)揮著重要作用，這類企業(yè)吸納了全國(guó)近82%的員工，但目前它們的發(fā)展面臨難題。為此，意大利需要開(kāi)拓中國(guó)市場(chǎng)，后者也要積極對(duì)接前者。預(yù)計(jì)會(huì)有更多的中國(guó)中小企業(yè)家前去意大利拜師取經(jīng)，意大利也不會(huì)放棄這個(gè)有前途的“學(xué)生”。從某種程度來(lái)說(shuō)，中小企業(yè)是一國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)健康狀況的晴雨表，也是絲路經(jīng)濟(jì)活躍的晴雨表。