|
GUANGZHOU, Sept. 17-- After taking over German robotics firm Kuka, Chinese home appliance giant Midea Group is turning the European company into a global service provider for smart manufacturing. At the 2017 China (Guangdong)--Europe Investment and Innovation Cooperation Conference held in Foshan City this week, Gu Yanmin, vice president of Midea, said more advanced mobile robots were being developed so Kuka's industrial robots could be applied in more complicated production scenarios. "More Chinese technologies have been introduced to the European market. The two-way technology exchange is replacing the previous one-way technology imports from Europe to China," Gu said. Midea has nine research and development centers in China, and the number of such centers overseas has topped 11. The latest is located in Graz, Austria, and aims to provide technology for home appliance development to the European market. Jonathan Schoo, China director at Germany Trade and Invest and a conference attendee, said more Chinese companies have invested in the high-tech field in Germany, while German companies have reinforced their investment in China. "Joint R&D projects in the high-tech field benefit both sides, and we welcome such cooperation," he said, citing a recent partnership between Guangdong Biolight Meditech Company with its German counterpart in establishing an R&D center in northern Germany. "From Germany's traditional dominant fields such as automobiles, engineering, machinery and transportation, to emerging areas including environmental protection and new energy, cooperation between the two countries is increasing," he said. | 
