With a view to raising project awareness among regional policy-makers and increasing the outreach of training and certification activities to SMEs of the electrical and electronics industry in the Zhejiang area, a fifth Regional Launch Event was held in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province on 24th January 2011 following up from the previous events organized respectively in Jinan on 13th August, in Huizhou on 16th September, in Shunde on 28th October 2010 and in Nanjing on 10th December 2010.

With the support of the Electronics Industry Association of Ningbo, the 1-day event organized for local policy makers and companies in the Zhejiang area was successfully conducted at the Fortune Bond Hotel in Ningbo on 24th January 2011. In order to continue raising interest in the upcoming training programs for 500 SMEs, a selection of local enterprises in the electrical and electronic industry were invited to attend the events. More than 100 participants turned up, including representatives from the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) and Renmin University as well as managers and engineers from the region small and medium companies.

The agenda of the Regional Launch Event consisted of detailed presentations by partners and experts on the project objectives and benefits for SMEs in improving their eco-efficiency, OHS and CSR performance through a series of possible measures as detailed in the project’s Standard Guidelines and Conformity Model concept and interactive discussion. Opening the event, Mr. Gan Xinde, Deputy Secretary-General of the Electronics Industry Association of Ningbo, welcomed representatives from the local enterprises, AHKB as well as the project partners. Project Team Leader Mr. Igor Darbo gave a comprehensive introduction of the project latest status including the development of an online e-learning platform for SMEs and answered questions raised by companies’ representatives regarding the expected commitments and benefits entailed by their participation in the training and assessment programme. Interested companies were indicated how to register for joining in the project activities. Mr. Huang Jin from CNIS introduced the Standard Guidelines developed by the project consortium. Representing CIE, Mr. He Chuangxin then gave a detailed presentation about the Conformity Model and explained the four levels of compliance that SMEs can reach in the frame of the project. Presentation on eco-efficiency was delivered by project expert Professor Jin Min from Renmin University who introduced several methods on how to improve eco-efficiency for Chinese SMEs in electrical and electronics industry.

In Ningbo, Mr. Chen Xueyao, the President of Ningbo Dongsheng Integrated Circuit Element Co., Ltd., shared his views on the importance of eco-design for the future of the Chinese electronics sector. An in-depth interactive discussion with the experts’ panel then helped participants sketching out the appropriate approach for each company to initiate its compliance/improvement measures and design an eco-efficiency/OHS/CSR Action Plan. A final Q&A session with participating SMEs was then initiated by short introductions made by Professor Jin Min and Mr. Huang respectively about the development of China WEEE and RoHS regulations.