On August 22, the People's Government of Jiading District, Shanghai, and Fosun held a strategic cooperation signing ceremony for the FFT project. The two parties announced that they would conduct comprehensive cooperation in intelligent manufacturing to jointly promote the innovative development of Jiading automotive and other industries and help "Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing."

This signing event is an essential part of the "2019 Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing International Summit Forum and FFT Global Strategy Release" held on the same day. The forum was guided by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and the People's Government of Jiading District, and co-hosted by Fosun and the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Jincheng Wu, Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, Xi Zhang, Secretary of Jiading District Committee, Fangzhou Lu, Mayor of Jiading District, Hualu Shen, Deputy District Mayor of Jiading District, Guangchang Guo, Chairman of Fosun International, Chairman of Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, Chairman of JuneYao Group More than 200 guests including Wang Junjin, FFT CEO Manfred Hahl, global industry experts, investment institution representatives, and partners attended the event.

Jincheng Wu, Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, and Xi Zhang, Secretary of Jiading District Committee delivered speeches respectively.

According to the cooperation agreement, Shanghai FFT Automation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "FFT," in May 2019, Shanghai FFT Automation Technology Co., Ltd. established by Fosun's fund acquired 100% of FFT GmbH & Co.KGaA) will settle in Jiading. Leverage Fosun's leading advantages in intelligent manufacturing and industrial automation to jointly promote Jiading Automobile and other industries' innovative development and improve regional development quality. The two parties will also jointly initiate the establishment of an investment fund for emerging industries of intelligent manufacturing, focusing on investing and introducing high-tech industrial projects in areas such as smart manufacturing.

Guangchang Guo, Chairman of Fosun International, said: "FFT is a German 'Industry 4.0' benchmarking enterprise with a history of nearly 50 years. After Fosun invests in FFT, it will be committed to Chinese domestic smart factory solutions' full value chain coverage and use the potential advantages of Made in China to help FFT provide better services to global customers."

Guangchang Guo said that Fosun would rely on FFT's upstream and downstream industrial chain layout, vigorously expand FFT's business in the Chinese market, introduce talents, and build an intelligent manufacturing industry platform.

"In the future, we will empower FFT through the entire Fosun's global ecosystem, continue to increase global R&D investment and achievement transformation. Besides, using China, the world's largest manufacturing application market, systematically carry out technological innovation and scenario applications for laser inspection, automated transportation, virtual debugging, digital twins, etc., to build a complete industry 4.0 new capability system. Fosun will uphold the operating philosophy of industry + capital open cooperation and use FFT as an opportunity and platform to continuously strengthen the relationship between China and Germany. The industry cooperation, standardization cooperation, and talent training cooperation will take three years to strive to build Fosun's industrial automation segment into a world-class intelligent manufacturing group."

FFT CEO Manfred Hahl released the FFT global development strategy in this forum. He said, "FFT will continue to increase smart manufacturing with the help of Fosun in the future and use our technological accumulation in the automotive and aerospace industries to provide customers in more industries with smarter, more flexible, and more efficient production smart solutions. At the same time, FFT will continue to increase R&D revenue, fully tap the collaboration capabilities of robots and other automation equipment and humans, so that industrial automation can better serve humans." In the forum, Chinese and foreign guests focused on promoting 5G communication technology and intelligent manufacturing of key technology and equipment. The in-depth integration of core industrial software with enterprise production technology and management process, the promotion of continuous innovation of manufacturing and business models, etc., launched in-depth discussions. The guests said that with the development of industrial automation, industrial software, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, the promotion of intelligent manufacturing and the realization of digital transformation has become the only way for global manufacturing companies to improve their profitability, establish differentiated competitive advantages, and respond to fierce competition.