While traveling with the delegation from the China Association for Pharmaceutical Equipment, April 24 to 30, 2002, I had the opportunity to visit the 16th Interpack Expo in Dusseldorf, Germany.
This highly developed industry in Germany and Italy was not news to me, as I was especially familiar with the quality of their pharmaceutical equipment. However, upon arriving at the packing expo, a world class event, I was awed by the greatness of scale and exquisiteness of the products. The center contains 17 large exhibition halls with a total display area reaching 200,000 square meters. It would require an entire day just to simply browse the entire exhibition of packing and processing machinery from around the world.
The latest Blister Packing Machines, Cartoners, Blister Line, Capsule Filling Machine and the relevant technology were demonstrated by the giants of the pharmaceutical industry, including Uhlmann, Bosch and Klockner Hansel of Germany and IMA and Maksim of Italy. The highly automated, sophisticated designs and matchless appearances (esp. German products) are truly amazing.
After the exhibition, we visited parts of Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria. Germany was my favorite, probably because of the fact that such a small nation continues to set such high standards of production. The country has only 80 million people, the land area is small and narrow and poor in natural resources, yet has produced such great figures in the fields of ideology, culture, art, science and technology, such as Karl Marx, Elbert Einstein, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Today’s Germany appears so peaceful and harmonious, that it is difficult to imagine she brought tremendous disasters to mankind not long ago.
The European countries we visited are generally flat and impressive natural sights such as those in China are rarely seen; sights such as high green mountains, unusual peaks, peculiar rock formations, flying cliffs and waterfalls. (People say that the highest drop of a waterfall in Europe is only 9 meters.) The cities have comparatively fewer modern and fashionable, high buildings and large mansions. However, other beautiful sights abound. Ancient buildings remain in perfect condition due to the rock texture. The subsequent expansion of cities retained existing structures and preserved the classic styles. The structures and sculptures of city halls and churches are magnificent. Cologne Cathedral is grand and sacred, while Norte Dame de Paris is known as “solidified music.” The process of constructing many of these buildings lasted hundreds of years, and skilled craftsmen of many generations spent whole lives working at these buildings with great care and precision. Even the residential buildings are quite artistic, with elegant metal ornaments on neighboring balconies distinguishing themselves from each other, yet with colors or paintings on walls working in harmony. The short hillsides and rural lands are covered with trees, vegetation and flowers, and not a single piece of bare land is visible.
The ancient castles in the mountains, farmers’ residences in the countryside and villages on the mountain slopes are picturesque. As an easterner, my first visit to Europe was filled with fascination and and wonder. Words could not express my feelings and I could only say that everything was perfectly beautiful.
Social welfare in most of the European countries affords the people a mix of benefits and costs. People work for a short time and get to enjoy more leisure time. On sunny days, many can be seen basking themselves in the sunshine on the grass or drinking coffee for long hours in small shops by the roadside. The relaxing and leisurely environment allows them to pursue a high quality of life. But the high cost of welfare makes European industrial products very expensive.
The big gap between European products and China’s is important to note. After more than ten years of development, especially benefiting from the enforcement of GMP in the pharmaceutical industry, the market for pharmaceutical machinery has grown dramatically. But practices among competitors such as low-level, redundant development, malignant plagiarism and low price competition, have prevented the internal strength of companies from matching the market, and fundamental management systems are still vulnerable. The situation will be quite severe once the GMP certification ends. The international market is undoubtedly a way to the future. But do we have a chance? It is said that occupational education in Germany is world class. A graduate majoring in mechanics does very well in lathing, grinding, planing and milling. But high quality, skilled workers are much needed in China. The senior generation is retiring (mainly those trained after the Cultural Revolution, but with small numbers) while the newly emerging force is very limited. The academic subject of mechanics receives little attention in colleges and universities. (It is said that Zhejiang University has to eliminate the academic subject of casting due to no registration of students.) Impetuous Chinese refuse to be engaged in a career where quick and big money cannot be made. What shall we do for the future?
Fortunately for us, the high cost of welfare in Europe results in extremely high prices for their industrial products, allowing China to expand in international markets. Our weakness lies in the level of automation and workmanship.
Back in Shanghai, we see modern, high buildings and large mansions everywhere, and people and vehicles rushing like they are going to a fair. The whole city is like an engine operating at high speed, in great contrast to the rural life and leisurely nature I saw in Europe. Chinese people are indeed making every minute count and doing everything they can to catch up.
By Jack Yang
General Manager of Jornen
June 3, 2002
