On27 November, Ding Qu, Assistant to the Chairman of Sunward IntelligentEquipment Group, delivered a keynote speech titled “Leading with PioneeringInnovation and Leveraging Youth Power” at the Technology Innovation and SmartCity Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

Thefull speech is as below.
Distinguishedleaders, guests, and youth leaders,
 Hello!I'm from Sunward Intelligent Equipment Group. It is my great honor to attendthis forum. I would like to thank the forum for building such an open platformand giving us the opportunity to learn from young leaders and exchange ideas togive play to youth power. To enhance understanding, please allow me to introduceourselves and present our views on technological innovation and related cases.We look forward to any advice from the young leaders.

Sunwardwas founded in 1999 and has always been committed to equipment manufacturing,with a focus on engineering equipment, special equipment, and aviationequipment. Over 21 years' development, we have achieved growth of 1,019 times,with an annual growth rate of 41.4%. Currently, we are among the top 50 globalengineering machinery manufacturers and the top 3 regional aircraft leasingenterprises in the world. The idea and philosophy of pioneering innovation wasproposed by Prof. He Qinghua, Chairman and Chief Expert of Sunward, as the coreconcept for the development of our company. After the reform and opening up, thedevelopment strategy of products and technologies can be eithermarket-following or market-pioneering. The former discovers the market'sbest-selling products and technologies and adopts the imitation method to enterthe market quickly at low cost, which undoubtedly plays a great role inpromoting the rapid development of enterprises and the economy in early stages.The latter is a long-term and repeated improvement process of research, design,trial production, testing, and test sale, when the market doesn't yet exist.The end products and technologies require a long cycle and large investment andimprove over a long course. This kind of pioneering innovation is more complexand difficult and needs a higher level of independent innovation. It is the mainway to realize the transformation from "Made in China" to"Created in China".

Sunwardcreated the pioneering innovation model and system, bringing differentiateddevelopment opportunities and building a portfolio of products and technologieswith distinctive features. In terms of theories, we were the first to proposeseveral design theories and control methods of engineering machinery, which areuniversally valuable. For example, the "quasi-constant power" designtheory and its control method have broken through a number of technicalbottlenecks, and the results have been widely used in the industry in additionto winning the second prize at the National Science and Technology ProgressAward. In terms of products, the 5G communication terminals we developed havebeen applied to 5G intelligent rotary drilling rigs and aerial work platforms,both the first of their kinds in the world. A batch of forward-lookingenergy-saving technologies such as vibration reduction and noise reduction wereselected in the list of pioneering technologies in the field of equipmentmanufacturing by Innovation China in 2020. We developed the first light-sportaircraft with airworthiness certification, and our flight control technologyand communication relay technology have been appliedin aircrafts. The general-aviation safety management platform was put intooperation in June this year. All of these were pioneering in promoting theflight of general-aviation light-sport aircrafts in China. We developed theworld's first oil and gas pipeline equipment, solving the problem of on-sitehigh-quality welding of the oil and gas pipeline with the largest pipe diameterin the world. We won the bidding for nuclear pollution suppression vehicles andentered the field of nuclear accident emergency response. In terms of coretechnologies in key areas, working together with relevant sectors, we were thefirst to bring unmanned equipment including remote-control excavators, unmannedvehicles, and UAVs into operation, playing an important role in emergencyrescue in extreme environments. In terms of basic research, we have beentackling key problems in digital twinning technology to promote the intelligentand unmanned development of engineering equipment. We have accelerated theseeking of solutions for problems such as our lack of technologies related tocore components of engineering machinery. This May, the project of oursubsidiary Wuxi Peak for capacity expansion of precision hydraulic parts brokeground. After completion of the project, 30,000 sets of precision hydraulicparts can be produced annually, which guarantees the supply of core parts.

Onthe afternoon of September 17, 2020, President Xi Jinping, during his trip toChangsha, Hunan, visited Sunward, praised our innovative spirit, and deliveredan exciting speech to employees of the company. "It is cold today, but Ifeel warm, because your innovative spirit deeply impresses me. Innovation isthe most important quality for business operation as well as the quality wemust have to surmount obstacles." His speech greatly encouraged ourenthusiasm for innovation. After Guangzhou Industry and Investment HoldingGroup's strategic investment in Sunward, CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee andGuangzhou Municipal Government supported the development of Sunward bycombining its "14th Five-Year Plan" industry development strategywith Sunward's "one body and two wings" development strategy, thuspromoting the future development of the enterprise in the market of the GreaterBay Area. President Xi has raised innovation to an important standard tomeasure enterprise quality. However, good quality cannot be achieved overnight.Particularly for fields in the real economy, such as equipment manufacturing,development must be achieved through long-term improvement. The pioneeringinnovation we mentioned doesn't mean blindly pursuing expansion. Instead, weshould settle down and work on independent innovation in a down-to-earthmanner. The market is full of risks, so pioneering innovation is risky too.Particularly for major difficult projects, there are still problems such aslong project lifecycle, great technological difficulties, high developmentcosts, and so on, and there is also every chance that “pioneering” may become“perished”. Moreover, innovation, at certain periods and stages，conflicts with the growth ofacompany.

Asthe young generation in the enterprise, the mostimportant thing is that we should face upto reality consciously and stick to the entrepreneurial spirit of pursuingachievements, considering carefully before making a decision, and respectingthe real economy. We should also guard against fickleness and eagerness forinstant success and quick profits, maintain strategic determination, focus onone direction for the long term, and make unremitting efforts to achievebreakthroughs. The development of Sunward has provided a broad platform formany young talented people to fulfil themselves. Among the middle and seniormanagement of Sunward, over 63% were born in the 1980s, and 87% were born inthe 1970s and 1980s, forming a contingent of talented young people, who aredriven by their career goals and interest, able to focus on long-termcommitments, and pragmatic. They are also open-minded, passionate, and willingto communicate and cooperate with the outside world. We expect moreinternational talent to join Sunward, helping each other forward and seekingcommon development. In order to integrate into the world's scientific andtechnological progress and economic development and to establish a platform tolearn from the world's outstanding talent, Sunward has set up subsidiaries andresearch institutes in more than a dozen countries, including the Philippines,Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand.We would like to cooperate with international talent and work together topromote progress in science, technology, and the human civilization. Inresponse to global and national strategic needs as well as our compatriots’needs, Sunward will further tap into its youth strength, devote itself toscientific and technological innovation, and expand the international market.Through continuous technological innovation, we will be more open in joininghands with friends from all walks of life in the international community tomake contributions to the development of a community with a shared future formankind. We welcome all the leaders, guests, and youth leaders to come toSunward to talk about the future. Wish you all good health and success in yourwork.

Thank you!