Support to be enhanced
By Vivian Zhang


Wang Qinmin
Deputy Chairman of Fujian CPPCC (the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), Director-general of Fujian
Provincial Science & Technology Department
王钦敏
福建省政协副主席、科技厅厅长

The 2005 China (Xiamen) International Semi-conductor Lighting Forum brought not only a rare opportunity, but also an immense developing capacity for the Fujian and Xiamen semi-conductor lighting industrialization base.

"For the past years, all levels of the government authorities in Fujian have been energetically promoting the development of the semi-conductor industry and will keep doing so in the future." Mr Wang said at the opening of the international forum.

According to the statistics released by Mr Wang, the high-tech industry has become the pillow industry in Fujian Province with its output value in 2004 reaching the milestone of 200 billion yuan, accounting for 23.2 per cent of overall industry outcome. The LED lighting industry is widely taken as a new point of growth in provincial economic development.

Since April 2004, when Xiamen was titled "National Semi-conductor Lighting Industrialization Base" by the National Science and Technology Ministry, Xiamen and its neighboring South Fujian area have laid a solid foundation of industry structure. Taiwan corporations as well as some foreign enterprises chose Fujian as their ideal investment place and formed a complete industry chain cooperating with local enterprises. In 2004, the output value of the LED lighting industry of Xiamen amounted to 7.3 billion yuan.

"The Fujian government will continue to enhance its support for the LED lighting industry by taking the following steps." Wang said. "Firstly, we will list the LED lighting industry on the Fujian Mid & Long Term Sci-tech Development Program and the Eleventh Five-year Program. Secondly, LED lighting will be recognised as a key industry and more effort will be exerted into developing our own innovative technology. Lastly, we will speed up the construction of the Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou high-tech industry innovative technology bases and promote industry clusters. We will seek breakthroughs in technology and productivity. Efforts will be concentrated on developing core techniques and products with intellectual property rights patents."

 

 

Leading country in future


Dr Bernd Schulte (R), President of European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC)
伯恩德博士, 欧洲光学工业协会会长

"In five to ten years, China will be the leading country in the field of opto-electronics." Dr Schulte asserted during an interview with Common Talk. "Compared with its counterparts in Europe, China's opto-electronic industry still lags behind, but it is catching up rapidly."

As Dr Schulte put it, China is aggressive in getting into the LED lighting industry and has been fast growing ever since. He attributed much of the achievements to the "push" from the Chinese government authorities at all levels.

"It is my fist time to attend the Chinese International Forum on Solid State Lighting, and I am quite impressed by the level and organization of the meeting. Apparently, the government authority has shown great enthusiasm and resolution in promoting the opto-electronic industry here, which is rarely seen back in Europe." Dr Schulte said.

As the most populous country in the world, China will presumably be a big power-consuming country in the future as its economy train is gathering speed. To solve the worsening energy shortage, developing environment friendly industries like LED lighting seems a way out. Dr Schulte took that as a sound reason behind the push by the Chinese government.

"I happened to come across some interesting figures." Dr Schulte said, "Of all the energy consumed worldwide, 50 per cent is used in lighting. If we changed all the ordinary lighting bulbs into LED lighting bulbs, we would save 40 per cent of all the energy consumed, which is amazing."

In Dr Schulte's opinion, China is still facing some difficulties on its way to the top country in the field. One of the biggest obstacles is that China is in desperate need of developing its own technology. "The most advanced technologies are in America and Europe, but owing to the intellectual property rights issue, they are not available in China. I think the pressing issue for China is to attract more skilled experts to engage in LED lighting R&D. "

According to Dr Schulte, the European Photonics Industry Consortium has undertaken to do some solid work in educating Chinese technology teams. From this Monday through to Wednesday, seminars will be given at Xiamen University attended by students and engineers. Every six months, EPIC will organize such seminars in cities like Beijing and Hong Kong, etc.

"China's enterprises will take a shorter time in climbing to the top than their foreign counterparts." Dr Schulte said, "they can use not only the current technology, but also the most advanced technology. Hence it is really a great opportunity for them."

 

 

LED products on show
By Shen Yang

Night lamps
新式马灯


Colourful LED lights
LED 彩灯


Hexiangxi Rd, an LED lighting night vision project
禾祥西路半导体照明示范工程


Large LCDs (liquid crystal display)
大型液晶显示屏


LCD back lights
LCD背光板