(Source: Fujian Daily) Fujian is the intellectual source and launchpad for the building of digital China, and an important breeding ground and hub for practicing the Xi Jinping thought on Ecological Civilization.

On June 18, at the Summit Forum on Fujian-Origin Businesses of the World Fujian-Origin Entrepreneurs Conference VII in Fuzhou, representatives of Fujian entrepreneurs including Hong Jie, Xu Qingliu, Lin Xiaofa, Xie Bingkun, Fu Wenhui and Chen Chenghui, joined experts and scholars, and heads of relevant departments for an in-depth discussion on the theme of “Blending Digital Technology with Physical Economy, Leading the Trend of Green Development”. The participants shared the view that “digital” and “green” are important driving forces for high-quality development, which can create more possibilities for meeting people’s pursuit of a better life. Fujian entrepreneurs should follow the trend of industrial transformation, focus their efforts on the main battlefield of digital economy and the strategic goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, and promote digital and green transformation in a coordinated way.

Empowering a better life

“Digital” and “green” are Fujian’s comparative advantages and strategic priorities.

During his work in Fujian, General Secretary Xi Jinping made the farsighted decision of building a digital Fujian and an eco-friendly province. Keeping in mind the General Secretary’s instructions, the provincial Party committee and provincial government made the digital economy and green economy the top priority in constructing a modernized economic system, and intensified efforts to build a digital Fujian and eco-friendly province with encouraging achievements.

At the forum, Fujian’s “digital” and “green” strengths were showcased by the following figures: last year, the added value of the digital economy exceeded 2.3 trillion yuan, accounting for about 47% of the province’s GDP; while successively crossing the 3 trillion yuan and 4 trillion yuan mark in GDP, Fujian continues to deliver high-quality water, air and eco-environment all year round, and lead the country in forest coverage (66.8%) through the years.

Digital Fujian and Beautiful Fujian have become the most distinctive base color and the most shining business card of the new Fujian in the new era. Globally, digital economy and green economy also represent the economic trend.

At the forum, Teng Tai, President of WANB Institute, noted that the “digital economy” and “green economy” will create more possibilities for meeting people’s pursuit of a better life.

In a keynote speech on “The Direction of Economic Transformation and the Innovation Strategy of Enterprises in the New Era”, Teng Tai analyzed the challenges and opportunities in the current economic environment, and shared his insights on how enterprises can create demand with supply and realize the transition from hard value manufacturing to soft value creation.

“In the new era, meeting people’s growing needs for a better life should become the direction for business transformation.” According to Teng Tai, to meet the need for a better life, enterprises need to shift from hard value manufacturing to soft value creation. As he sees it, hard value meets people’s basic material needs and soft value meets people’s needs for a better life. The creation of soft value does not consume natural resources, but originates from people’s creativity, including the values of R&D creativity, experience, scenes, data flow, and innovation in business model. “Enterprises must be a creator of soft value, and break through the bottleneck of R&D innovation with soft value.” The Fujian entrepreneurs attending the forum echoed Teng Tai’s views, and promised to focus more on digitization and green development in order to create more soft values and contribute to the high quality of life.

Integrating digital economy and development security

Digital technology creates a future of infinite opportunities. As a vantage point of the new round of global industrial competition and a new driver for accelerating transformation and upgrading, the digital economy is reconstructing the dynamics of business competition.

The role of industrial digitization and digital industries in promoting intelligent manufacturing, management improvement and business transformation was fully recognized by the Fujian entrepreneurs. They all pledged to seize the opportunity of the new round of digitization, follow the trend of upgraded consumption, further promote the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of enterprises, and boost the efficiency and performance of business operation.

As one of the first private enterprises to apply modern information technology in the province, Hengan Group put forward a comprehensive digitization strategy in 2013, and launched at the end of 2014 the third round of management transformation focusing on end-to-end information visualization of the supply chain. Through the automation of production, the company has made improvement in product quality, digital process, equipment management, energy conservation and emission reduction; the informatization of the supply chain has also enabled Hengan Group to better adapt to the changes of fragmented channels and new business models.

“We will take proactive actions to embrace the era of big data. In alignment with the ‘Digital Fujian’ strategy, we will step up input in digitization, make the industrial chain more efficient, boost the efficiency of operations with digital applications, and tap more values in our customers,” said Xu Qingliu, President of Hengan Group.

Chen Chenghui, Chairman of Kehua Data Co., Ltd., believes that digital technology should be better harnessed to reshape the real economy in all dimensions and across all links, promote the collaboration on the whole industrial chain and integration across multiple sectors, and empower the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries; the company’s strengths of massive data and rich application scenes should be put into better use to maximize the amplifying, compounding and multiplying effect of digital technology on economic development, fully release the technology dividend and innovation dividend, and pave the way for creation of new industries, new business forms, new models.

“It is now widely recognized that intelligent manufacturing boosts the competitiveness of enterprises.” Fu Wenhui, Chairman of Ningde Skeqi Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., noted that enterprises should not only promote the development of their main business, but also prepare for “forging ahead”, and make “intelligent manufacturing” an important means for boosting the competitiveness of enterprises, and achieving the goal of higher efficiency and lower costs.

Fu Wenhui also underscored the importance of getting a clear picture of oneself, being prepared for incremental progress, and avoiding a simplistic approach of copying precedents. “Do not blindly copy others, and, most importantly, never go for vanity projects that are only for optics.” He suggested that the enterprise’s systems, processes and protocols should all become informatized, and intelligent applications should be developed for the enterprise’s R&D, production, sales, supply chain and the whole life cycle management of products.

“Digital technology is a double-edged sword.” In his keynote speech, Zhou Hongyi, Founder, Chairman and CEO of 360, gave a similar advice. “Security is the premise of development, while development is the guarantee of security.” Based on his personal experience, Zhou Hongyi explained with a large number of vivid examples that security is the base for the integration of digital technology and real economy. The higher the degree of digitization, the greater the security challenges. As the attack in the virtual world also brings damage to the physical world, we must build a robust shield for digital security while “digitally” empowering the real economy, so as to better safeguard the integrated development of digital technology and real economy, protect the development of the digital economy, and safeguard national security.

Reinforcing the color of high-quality development

Green is the color of high-quality development. Enterprises are important champions of green and low-carbon development. The participants of the forum said, as Fujian entrepreneurs of the new era, they need to seize the “green opportunities” of the market, accelerate business transformation and upgrading, develop more green products, create a green supply chain, and support the government's “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” target.

“When I founded 3TREES in 2002, I was thinking of providing people with healthier and more environment-friendly products and creating a paint brand of the Chinese nation,” said Hong Jie, Chairman and President of SKSHU Paint Co., Ltd. Over the past 20 years, following the corporate mission of “making homes healthier, cities more beautiful and life better” and keeping pace with the national strategy, 3TREES has broken the monopoly of international paint brands in the industry and continued to raise the quality of life for the people with high-quality green products.

The concept of green development runs through the whole process of business operation, paving the way for the green production and delivery of the whole supply chain. The construction of a green eco-sphere brings upstream and downstream enterprises into a joint endeavor toward green innovation and production, and makes the industrial chain “greener”. 3TREES has also contributed to the vision of “green Winter Olympics” by providing paints and coatings to the Winter Olympic venues, the helmets of the short-track speed skating national team and the “safe-to-bite” Olympic gold medals… the 20-year history of 3TREES is a microcosm of green-inspired growth of private enterprises.

Green development is a shared commitment of Fujian entrepreneurs.

“Green manufacturing is the main leverage of manufacturing companies.” According to Lin Xiaofa, Secretary of the Party Committee of JOMOO Group, JOMOO had invested in a 5G cloud manufacturing factory as early as in 2016 together with several other enterprises. Today, JOMOO has launched the world’s first and largest intelligent toilet lighthouse factory, which can produce 3.5 million sets of intelligent toilets annually, and reduce 18,000 tons of carbon emissions each year through photovoltaic power generation, design-enabled emission reduction and water conservation.

Innovation is the fundamental driving force for digitized and green development.

Lin Xiaofa said that JOMOO invests 10% of its annual sales in product innovation, and builds market dominance with vital technologies such as the world’s first intelligent health check machine, a forward-looking innovation in life science and technology. Through accelerated digital transformation, JOMOO provides consumers with more digitized and intelligent home products. “Now in the sanitary industry, JOMOO ranks the first in China and the third in the world, and keeps expanding its share in the international market, ending the history of the Chinese people lining up to buy toilets abroad.”

Xie Bingkun, Chairman of Fujian Kuncai Materials Technology Co., Ltd., also believed that in a globalized world, digitization and green development is out of the question for enterprises if they can’t develop their core competitiveness for sustainable innovation across the industrial chain.

“Fujian is endowed with tremendous power of innovation and potential for creation, and Fujian entrepreneurs have a glorious tradition of being brave and good at innovation.” During the forum, the leader of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce expressed the hope that Fujian entrepreneurs will strengthen research in core technologies, promote the deep integration of industry, academia, research institutes and end users, accelerate the digital and intelligent upgrade of their businesses, push for major breakthroughs in green and low-carbon technologies, and make good use of the key variable of scientific and technological innovation to maximize the outcomes of high-quality development.