An Exclusive Interview with Chairman Jiwu WANG by People’s Daily: Create a Worldwide Network of Contacts instead of Acting as a Lone RangerPrint

Post Time：2018-11-26来源：TusHoldings

People’s Daily Overseas Edition, November 24: The graceful arc of the cable-stayed bridge spans the Yongjiang River. The breeze blows gently, and the river ripples. The green grass on both sides of the river is interspersed among tall coconut trees. In the distance, the mountain peaks and hills wind up and down, outlining the vivid skyline. Here is the flourishing city of Nanning in the early winter season. In the Nanning Tus-ASEAN Science City, which was just completed on the bank of Yongjiang River, the 2nd Tsinghua University “Belt and Road” Cooperation Forum & the 10th Tus Innovation Forum opened grandly. Guests from China and ASEAN got together, including Jiwu WANG, Chairman of Tus-Holdings Co., Ltd. As the Chinese chairman of the China-ASEAN Science & Technology Industry Cooperation Committee, Jiwu WANG is committed to promoting the “Congregation, Polymerization, Focalization and Achievement” of scientific and technological innovation elements between the two sides. During the forum, he accepted an exclusive interview with reporters on such topics as technological innovation and promotion of China-ASEAN scientific and technological cooperation.


Technological Innovation is the Top Priority of China-ASEAN Cooperation

“I believe that China-ASEAN cooperation should give top priority to the promotion of technological innovation. The joint construction of the ‘Belt and Road’ should also give top priority to it.” Jiwu WANG clearly explained his views on China-ASEAN cooperation and the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”. He said that this judgment was obtained based on the law of economic development and the basic national conditions of the majority of the “Belt and Road” participating countries. From the perspective of development level, a considerable proportion of the “Belt and Road” participating countries are still in the development phase of the second industrial revolution or the first industrial revolution. The economic structure of these countries is dominated by agriculture, animal husbandry and light industry. Only by completing the evolution and upgrading of modern chemical, electrical and intelligent industries can they achieve economic transformation. And this cannot go without scientific and technological innovation. “If you do not take scientific and technological innovation as a guide to promote industrial upgrading, the crisis cannot be avoided. For example, a primary industrial country cannot achieve industrial upgrading without scientific and technological innovation. Under the circumstance of saturated primary industrial investment, even if a large amount of capital is raised, such capital will certainly be invested in the fields of finance, real estate, etc., which will push up property prices and create false prosperity. Once the market crashes, the country will fall into a crisis.” said Jiwu WANG. The facts have proved this point. And in recent years, those countries that have experienced a crisis have deviated from the right path of scientific and technological innovation.

Based on the judgment that “scientific and technological innovation is the top priority”, TusHoldings has held high the banner of innovation and actively participated in and promoted scientific and technological cooperation during the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”. Tus-ASEAN Science City, which has just been put into use, is an example of TusHoldings’ promotion of the cooperation between China and ASEAN. “Tus-ASEAN Science City is a comprehensive scientific and technological cooperation platform. On one hand, it is committed to integrating the scientific and technological resources of both sides to make more innovative achievements; on the other hand, it is committed to the transfer and transformation of innovative achievements to drive the leap-forward development of strategic emerging industries in the ASEAN and China.” said Jiwu WANG. Moreover, TusHoldings has established Tus College of Digit in cooperation with a university in Guangxi, and China’s first cross-border incubator in a border-city - Dongxing TusStar. It can be expected that Guangxi will take this advantage to realize the rise of scientific and technological innovation capability and the strength of strategic emerging industries.


Conspicuous Achievements in the Construction of the Global Innovation Network

Tus-ASEAN Science City and Dongxing TusStar Incubator are part of TusHoldings’ Global Innovation Service Network. With respect to the service network, Jiwu WANG proudly said that such a global network built by TusHoldings through 24 years' unremitting efforts was really large and striking. Consisting of nearly 300 carriers, such as incubators, science parks and science cities, the network covers such major Chinese cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao as well as about 70 major cities in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Australia and other countries. It can be said that TusHoldings has become an elite force in the international scientific and technological innovation system.

What is the position and influence of TusHoldings in the international scientific and technological innovation system? Jiwu WANG gave two examples to the reporter of People’s Daily.

At the 35th World Conference of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) held on September 2nd this year, Herbert CHEN, COO of TusHoldings, was elected as the Vice President of the Association and expected to turn into President two years later. “In over 30 years’ history of the organization, the presidency has generally been taken by American, Englishmen or those from other countries. This is the first time that a Chinese will act as the president.” said Jiwu WANG. Indeed, this also reflects the innovation strength and international influence of TusHoldings.

On July 19 this year, the TusPark Cambridge was opened grandly, marking the commencement of the operation of the innovation platform jointly built by TusPark and Cambridge Science Park. “The United Kingdom is one of the birthplaces of science parks in the world. The Cambridge Science Park is the pioneer among the world’s science parks. TusHoldings, as a rising star, constructs an innovation network carrier in the birthplace of the world’s science parks in the position of equal partner. This shows our strength. ” said Jiwu WANG. It is worth mentioning that just about two months ago, TusPark Newcastle, less than 400 kilometers from Cambridge, was officially opened and put into operation. The two science parks under TusHoldings shine each other brightly in the United Kingdom.

Innovation carriers including science parks account for less than 30% of TusHoldings’ total assets of RMB 200 billion, while various fields of strategic emerging industries account for more than 70%. TusHoldings is indeed an engine of strategic emerging industries.” said Jiwu WANG.


Two Important Factors Bring about More Advantages and Opportunities

It is learned that innovation carriers including science parks constructed by TusHoldings are either non-profitable or just slightly profitable. But why TusHoldings is still building an innovation network system around the world?

In this regard, Jiwu WANG said that this was an inevitable choice of TusHoldings to accurately grasp and adapt to the changing trend of human “innovation paradigm”. He said that the traditional paradigm of scientific technological innovation can be broadly summarized as “regional ‘lone ranger’ innovation”. Both the king of invention Edison and the Silicon Valley scientist group made innovations generally through a single scientist or several scientists in a limited region. As the process of globalization of innovation accelerates, the new paradigm of scientific and technological innovation, i.e. “global synergistic cluster innovation”, is developing. Through the rational allocation of innovative resources on a global scale, we can realize unprecedented cooperation across regions and fields to make innovation achievements. In view of this, TusHoldings launched an internationalization strategy a long time ago to establish a worldwide innovation network system. “This is the infrastructure for scientific and technological innovation and should thus be built. By studying on the history of the British industrial revolution, we have found out that the main reason why the industrial revolution first took place in that country is that it mastered the global fleet - a special form of infrastructure, and made use of it to obtain resources, technology and labor in the world and conduct free trade, becoming the first to complete the primitive accumulation of capital.” said Jiwu WANG.

It is not easy to build innovation infrastructure around the world. Jiwu WANG said frankly that TusHoldings faced many difficulties in the early state of its internationalization strategy. At that time, a consensus was not reached among international peers with respect to innovation globalization. They did not emancipate their ideas in cooperating to establish innovation carriers including science parks and incubators, and were reluctant to share experiences. Some peers even refused to communicate with TusHoldings.

Why has TusHoldings’ internationalization process accelerated in recent years? According to Jiwu WANG, in addition to the fact that the concept of innovation globalization is increasingly rooted in the hearts of the people and that the advantages of the scientific and technological innovation network in China are further highlighted, there are two important factors that give it more advantages and opportunities. First, the application scenario advantages and R&D scale advantages in China are increasingly apparent. Continuous evolution of technology can be achieved only if innovation results are applied to practice and continuous feedback is received from it. The application scenarios in China are abundant. Once technology is available in China, it can gain rapid progress. China has brought up a large team of engineers who are valuable resources highly relied upon by international innovation institutions. International peers hope that through cooperation with TusHoldings, they can quickly put innovation results into application scenarios and build R&D teams efficiently. Second, the “Belt and Road” Initiative has brought about great opportunities. Since the Initiative was launched in 2013, TusHoldings has gained a broader platform for participating in international scientific and technological cooperation. Under this framework, TusHoldings has made deployment rapidly in countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East to build and run a number of innovation carriers.

“We will keep expanding the worldwide network of ‘contacts’ for innovation to turn TusHoldings into a powerful comprehensive global organization.” Jiwu WANG finally said. (Reporter: Baoshu ZHANG)