The head of the China division of German auto giant BMW says the group is looking to expand on its footprint in the country and says now is the right time to invest in China.
Sean Green, president and CEO of the BMW Group Region China, said the multinational auto manufacturer is continuing to increase their investment in China, which demonstrates their strong confidence in the Chinese market.
Green noted the BMW Group has established its biggest production base and the largest research and development system outside of Germany in China, and has a strong presence in several cities.
"Our research development department is the biggest R and D department outside of our German head office. So research [and] development is really one of the strengths we have here with four different sites, in Shenyang, in Shanghai, Beijing, and most recently in Nanjing. So [we have] an extremely strong footprint here in China for success, not only here in China to give to our consumers the best products we can, but also to influence the worldwide offer, because what we can develop here in China can be successful everywhere in the world," said Green during a recent interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
He also highlighted that advanced technologies, such as 5G, have been applied in the production line of BMW factories in China which is helping the company boost its operations.
"5G was the first production facility we had anywhere in the world. By having the 5G applications allows you this perfect seamless connectivity within the building," Green said.
Last year, work began on the BMW Group's new battery production plant in the northeast city of Shenyang City, which features a total investment of 10 billion yuan (about 1.37 billion U.S. dollars) and is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs after its completion.
Since 2010, around 100 billion yuan has already been invested in the BMW Shenyang Production Base and its projects, with the production capacity rising to 830,000 units per year.
In the face of doubts and questions towards the Chinese economy, Green insisted that BMW still has faith in China and will continue its efforts to expand its business, which may inspire others to follow suit. He also noted thay BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., the the group's joint venture in China which was established in 2003, now has over 400 local suppliers in the country.
"Investing [in China] right now as we did in Europe and the U.S. during the financial crisis was the right time to invest, and we're very lucky that we have a very strong supply chain in and around not only Shenyang, but Liaoning, and also the rest of China with about 450 local suppliers. So when we invest, and we show the confidence, we actually lead the way for others as well," Green said.
BMW China CEO affirms expansion plans, calls China investment timing ideal
The 2024 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, which concluded in east China's financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday, served as an important platform for exhibitors to showcase their diverse offerings, ranging from large-scale model service to scientific data platforms.
More than 1,300 industry insiders from over 50 countries and regions have participated in the three-day conference this year.
The event had attracted more than 300,000 visitors and another 1.9 billion people joining online as of 14:00 on Saturday, both setting record highs since the first edition of the annual event in 2018.
This year's WAIC is the first to emphasize AI safety and governance, as reflected in its theme -- Governing AI for Good and for All." Experts said the theme has emerged as a response to the need to reinforce responsibility as the field rapidly expands.
"New technology means new players, new players come in with, potentially, a new agenda, new power. And so the importance of governance is to establish trust between all the actors. And we think it's important because we think that society in its whole means to adopt this new technology and to make it its own. And for this, regulation and governance can help by being a third party," said Gael Varoquaux, research director of the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology.
Over 500 renowned companies showcased more than 1,500 exhibits at the event, setting another record. The event also witnessed the unveiling of more than 50 new products and facilitated the signing of 24 major industrial project, with an estimated investment reaching 5.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Exhibitors from Chinese brands were eager to tout the rising popularity of their innovations. For tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba, their business-oriented platform Model Studio helps improve generative AI models using what is called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), a system that helps optimize large language models without touching the underlying system.
"Model Studio has more than 150 million function calls per day. It's an open-source community-based model. So you can use the community version, or use our enterprise model to build a RAG system, using such as five to ten lines of code," said Gao Jinyang, a chief architect with Alibaba Model Studio.
Domestic institutions at the fair also attracted attention for bringing new ways to security in the field of AI.
"The Shanghai Academy of Artificial Intelligence for Science has taken the lead to build a multi-modal platform for scientific data. We want to enhance the efficient processing, trustworthiness, and secure circulation of data by developing this platform which covers the whole process including data cleaning, processing, management, and modeling,” said Cao Fenglei, an AI scientist with the Shanghai Academy of Artificial Intelligence for Science.
AI conference reveals vast diversity among new players in emerging field
