Hu Jintao gives high evaluation on Ma Chunji’s speech at NPC session

Corporate news      Author:      Date:2008-03-12

Hu Jintao gives high evaluation on Ma Chunji’s speech at NPC session
and stresses on insisting on self-innovation and speeding up transformation of economic development style and making Chinese equipment manufacturing industry strong

On the morning of March 9, CPC General Secretary, Chinese President and Chairman CPC Central Military Commission Hu Jintao came to the Shandong delegation reviewing with the deputies together the government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao and the NPC Standing Committee work report delivered by Chairman Wu Bangguo.  Hu Jintao gave high evaluation on the speech “Strengthening the ability for self-innovation and making Chinese equipment manufacturing industry strong” addressed by Ma Chunji, chairman and party secretary of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Corporation and chairman of Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited.  He said “just now comrade Ma Chunji made a good speech and they validated the decision of the central government through their practice,” “Taking enhancing the ability of innovation as the central link for the transformation of economic development style, as comrade Ma Chunji said we must vigorously push forward original innovation, integrated innovation, and digestion – absorption for re-innovation”.

Hu Jintao stressed that it is required that the transformation of economic development style should be speeded up to boost economic development fast and well.  On the base of summarizing the economic development experience since reform and opening, the 17th Congress of CPC took speeding up the transformation of economic development style as an urgent and important strategic task that is related to the overall national economy.  In order to put this strategy task into practice and realize economic developing fast and well, it is the key to vigorously promote “Three Transformations” that is promoting  the transformation of economic growth from mainly depending on the driving  of investment and export to depending on the coordinately driving of consumption, investment and export; from mainly driving by the secondary industry to mainly driving by the coordination among first industry, secondary industry and tertiary; and from depending mainly on increasing material consumption to depending mainly on progress of scientific and technology, employee making improved and management innovation.  First, self-innovation is to focally push forward.  About this issue, just now comrade Ma Chunji from Sinotruk and comrade Xu Zhenchao from Qingdao Harbor Affairs Administration said very well and they validate from their practice decisions of the central government.  If Shandong wanted to realize the leap from an economic-large province to an economic-strong province, they must insist on walking on the way of self-innovation with Chinese characteristics and take enhancing self-innovation ability as the central link of the transformation of economic development style, just as Ma Chunji said now we must vigorously enhance original innovation, integrated innovation, and digestion – absorption for re-innovation.  Secondly, it is required to adjust economic structure and enhance updating of industrial structure focally.  We must adhere to riding the road of new type of industrialization and strengthen first industry, promote secondary industry and make tertiary industry large to strive for establishing a modern industrial system; we must vigorously promote the integration of informationalization and industrialization, speeding up renovation and updating of traditional industries, accelerating the development of advanced equipment manufacturing industry, accelerating the development of high-tech and new industries, and accelerating the development of service industries such as finance, information, and tourism so as to promote production factors concentrating on advantageous industries and enterprises and raise the degree of industry concentration and competitiveness.  Thirdly, we must put emphasis on expansion of consumption demand and improve people’s livelihood.  To realize China’s sustainable economic growth, we must depend on consumption, investment and export, a three-pronged approach.  We must adhere to putting people-in-the-first, and we must combine domestic demand with people’s livelihood improved, and continuously resolve beneficial problems which people are most concerned about, and are the most direct and most practical to people so as to allow all people to share the results of reform and development.

Ma Chunji expounded in five aspects about “Enhancing the ability of self-innovation and making China’s equipment manufacturing industry strong”.He said we deeply understood the talk about self-innovation in Prime Minister’s report which pointed out we must adhere to taking enhancing self-innovation as the central link of transformation of development style; innovation is the soul of enterprise development as well as the soul of a nation’s progress; adhering to scientific development view and implementing the great project of self-innovation was an obligatory way for the people to be abundant and for a nation to be strong; as a large state-owned enterprise, Sinotruk is to fully fulfills the main body of self-innovation function making a good example in China’s advanced manufacturing industry, which is Sinotruk historical responsibility.  We understand that:

First, self-innovation is the internal driving force for the development of enterprises. After the restructure, Sinotruk focused on the enhancement of self-innovation ability, which changed the passive situation and achieved leap development.  Before the restructure the annual production and sales volume of heavy trucks was 2,000 units in 2000, and now the volume increased to 100,000 units last year, and the market share increased from 4% in 2000 to 21%.  Last year, the production and sales volume of heavy trucks was 100,619 units realizing sales 37.1 billion yuan and profits 2.1 billion yuan.  Compared with the performance in period of the restructure, every main target of Sinotruk increased 20 by times and Sinotruk is in the first place in heavy truck industry nationwide, and its volume of production and sales ranks among top 5 of the world heavy truck manufacturers.  On 28 November 2007, Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited successfully listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the fund volume of first public offering was 9.95 billion Hong Kong dollars, becoming the first red chip stock on Hong Kong stock market and the largest enterprise in term of financing amount in mainland manufacturing industry.  The success of the listing was not only investors’ endorsement to Sinotruk but also investors’ endorsement to Sinotruk self-innovation outcomes.  The self-innovation not only resolved the problem for the company to exist but also made the company stride on a new staircase realizing developing fast and well.

      Second, the core of self-innovation was technical innovation and the ultimate outcome of technical innovation is to realize production innovation.Before the restructure, Sinotruk had only one product series with 78 variants.  With increasing investment for research and development to strive for developing new products, Sinotruk has formed HOWO, Sitaier King, Sitaier, Golden Prince, Hojun, Hoyun, Huanghe and so on together nine series more than 2,700 variants showing prominent advantages in technology and market leadership in heavy truck industry.  In particular, according to market practical demand, Sinotruk re-digested and absorbed Steyr technology and developed heavy truck Sitaier King in 2003, and in next year the sales volume of Sitaier King reached 15,000 units.  In 2006, with insisting on principles of digestion, absorption and re-innovation we developed HOWO heavy truck series with our own intellectual property rights within just one year.  With extensive use of new process, new materials, and new technologies, many product targets of HOWO came to world level.  Within one year when HOWO series products were released to market the annual production and sales volume of HOWO reached more than 10,000 units.  In 2007 its world class-quality and prominent cost-effective advantages made the annual production and sales volume break 60,000 units, and HOWO became one of the most favorite heavy truck product in the market.  We deeply understand that technical innovation must adhere to market-orientation so as to have new technical innovation outcomes industrialized.

      Third, only insisting on self-innovation can Sinotruk support internationally competitive self-owned brand.These years, Sinotruk has researched and developed new technology consecutively with meeting market demand actively, based on good quality established, supported by core technology of self-owned intellectual property rights and with harmonious corporate culture as inside content.

      We had no patent before restructure,.  With efforts, we have got 656 patents approved by national government accumulatedly, 52 invention patents and 86 design patents.  In addition, over the past five years, we had formulated 24 standards for state government for the whole heavy truck industry, and our company has become an enterprise with number one in terms of patent quantity in automobile industry nationwide.
We believed that the technology introduction was neither simple imitating nor copying, and the key is on the basis of digestion and absorption to realize re-innovation and create self-owned brands for national industry.  For years, through deep technology introduction, digestion and absorption, we improved and updated technology actively and boldly to achieve the product updated to new generation, which not only made the technology and quality begin to step onto the platform of advanced technology of world heavy trucks, also made Sinotruk become a heavy truck brand with self-owned intellectual property rights with certain reputation, promoting the internationalization of the company.  In 2007, Sinotruk realized exporting heavy truck 14,013 units and creating foreign exchange 507 million US dollars, which is the first place for volumes of heavy truck export and creating foreign exchange in China’s heavy truck industry in three consecutive years.

   Fourth, to insist on self-innovation, we must vigorously conduct management innovation project.
For a company to self-innovate, it is necessary to not only make technical innovation but also to pay more attention to the implementation of management innovation project.  We have independently developed domestically advanced “One-Line-Through” systems, which includes information of sales, service, money transfer and spare parts management together, production and logistics management and control of the main operation units and finance and capital centralized management.  By implementing “One-Line-Through” information management project, the costs reduced by 180 million yuan annually.  In 2006, Sinotruk began to enlarge the construction of vehicle information management system and implement “mobile-in-hand” management system, which made the data of every vehicle’s operation condition, maintenance and service and so on under the monitor and the control of the computer system.  This greatly reduced operation risks and costs in the process of marketing and service.  Practice has proved that management innovation is an important part of self-innovation and an effective guarantee for technical innovation.

     Fifth, to insist on self-innovation, we must make great efforts to cultivate talents for innovation ability which is the most basic drive and guarantee for realizing self-innovation.
In resources optimal allocation, the most important is human resources allocation.  Sinotruk adopts many methods such as “bringing-in” and "sending-out" and so on to cultivate a large number of outstanding innovative talents and tried to create conditions, build platforms to make talents realize their life value in self-innovation and enhance the feeling of achievement of science and technology personnel to take on the responsibility of the company for technical innovation.
By enhancing establishment level of national-level Technical Center and implementing “production-study-research” project, Sinotruk has got co-operations with a dozen or so international and domestic key colleges and scientific research institutions one after other, established post-doctoral workstations and brought up a large number of innovation talents.  In recent years, Sinotruk has undertaken 20 items or so for tackling key problems with national, provincial and municipal scientific and technological projects, among which one item in national project of 863 planning, two items supported by state-level scientific program were honored in National Manned Space Fight project.  18 persons won the title of Provincial Technical Outstanding Talents; 118 excellent scientific and technical talents won the title of Science and Technical Expert or the title of Youth Science and Technical Expert; 36 persons were named as Provincial or Municipal Top Technician.

     After this conference, we should study and implement the spirit of the 17th Congress of CPC and the first session of the 11th NPC seriously and take the chance of red chip stock listed on Hong Kong market, adhere to the view of scientific development, open up and innovate boldly and enhance enterprise making comprehensively.  Sinotruk will continue to adhere to self-innovation, operation with criterion and turn the fund advantage into core competitive advantage of the company, and turn the market expansion advantage into comprehensive strength advantage to quickly build Sinotruk a heavy truck enterprise of first class nationwide and internationally famous and make new and greater contributions to the promotion and progress of level of Chinese equipment manufacturing industry.

     Jiang Daming made a speech titled “Carrying out and realizing scientific development view and turning economic development style”.  Representatives, Zhang Jianhua, Xu Zhenchao, Zhang Zhenchuan, Sun Jing , Liu Jiakun, Wu Dexin and Xu Liquan also made speeches at the conference respectively.

    Correspondents   Li Bin   Ni Guixiang   Yang Chunhua