Hebei, China: The Transformation Road Of “Back Garden” Of Chinese Capital
Transformation
When it comes to Hebei, the sense of presence is far inferior to other Chinese provinces and cities. Even if it has more hazy, people are more concerned about the haze in Beijing. However, Hebei, which is known as the "back garden" of Chinese capital, has never given up to want to play a leading role in China and change the stereotyped impression.
As for haze weather which is the instigator who caused Hebei Province repeatedly criticized, one of the reasons are that Hebei has a large industrial base in addition to the special geographical environment. When China vigorously promoted industrial development, rapid economic development in Hebei also gave rise to by-products such as haze. Modern industrial development in Hebei started earlier, and the status of large industrial province was created relying on abundant natural resources and the efforts of the Hebei people. It has over 120,000 manufacturing enterprises and the total industrial output ranks sixth in the country for 12 consecutive years. Among the 41 industrial categories of classified by national industry classification standards, there are 41 categories in Hebei Province. In 2016, Hebei's equipment manufacturing industry surpassed the steel industry for the first time to become the largest industry, and the fields of industrial robots, communication and navigation, medical electronics, clothing, and luggage also achieved rapid development. In addition, the types of industries in Hebei are rich and varied, which has shaped the multi-regional industrial development characteristic.
At the same time, with diversity development, the limitations of lack of innovation and design concepts become more and more obvious. Taking Hebei Create Instrumentation Technologies Co., Ltd. as an example, it is a company focusing on design and product of water quality testing equipment. In China, the products from the company are in leading position, but in international exhibition, compared with products with equal quality, the products of the company are uncompetitive due to the limitation of appearance and user experience, so that it often failed in international competitions.
Many enterprises faces the same difficulty with the Create Instrumentation. Most of the manufacturing enterprises in Hebei province are located in the middle and low-end positions. The products they produce are located in the middle of the production chain in their respective industries. High quality raw materials of Hermes, Zwilling, Starbucks and other international famous brands are from Hebei manufacturing companies; however, with the same raw materials, the prices of products with international brand logos can be made in units of 10,000 yuan, and the prices of products with the same quality from Hebei enterprises are greatly reduced. The reason is that the appearance and packaging lacking design, and the brand has low added value without premium. In the fierce market competition, price war is the only way to survive, but for modern people who increasingly value the quality of life, the competitiveness is naturally very weak.
The enterprises of Hebei is in urgent need of changing the less innovation, lagged manufacturing and uncompetition in international market. For this difficult situation, Shirley Feng, Director General of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center (HIDC) said : “Although government promotes industrial design, the transformation and innovation of Hebei are still in its infancy compared with the city with profound design power including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, so that it still needs lots of efforts to achieve the development from manufacturing to intellectual development.”
Although it looks like a long road, Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center that will open recently and its series of activities lead a good momentum. The atmosphere of promoting the development of industrial design in cities in Hebei Province is growing: according to relevant statistics, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Langfang, Cangzhou, Handan, Xinji and other cities have established municipal working group leading industrial design work; Shijiazhuang, Hengshui, Qinhuangdao, Handan, Cangzhou and other cities cooperated closely with Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center to jointly carry out more than ten industry matching activities such as designing lecture and “design×manufacturing” industry matching meeting, popularizing industrial design awareness in the province, exploring potential design service needs of manufacturing industry and creating industrial design development atmosphere. With the opening of Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, eight international activities, such as international industrial design workshop, international works exhibition of industrial design development history, boutiques international prize-winning works exhibition, Shijiazhuang top ten excellent industrial design products exhibition, maker workshop, design innovation tour and other activities will be held to create more and more profound design atmosphere in the whole province.
Hebei Create Instrumentation Technologies Co., Ltd. has seen the rising of transformation way of Hebei, and is trying to began its own transformation way: “We began to pay attention to the appearance and packaging of our products. While maintaining the professional performance of our products, we also stress on appearance design of the products, which makes our order volume leaping.” Create Instrumentation has successfully emerged in the international markets and these manufacturing companies of Hebei benefiting from the design may lead the transformation way of the capital’s “back garden” to a higher stage.
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