A solid foundation for manufacturing industries has become key for companies in Weifang city, Shandong province, to maintain growth amid uncertainties in global trade.

In the first eight months of 2019, export value in Weifang was 74.48 billion yuan ($10.53 billion), an increase of 13.4 percent year-on-year, and 7.3 percentage points higher than the national average. Exports to emerging markets such as Russia, Africa and Latin America also increased significantly year-on-year, according to local officials.

Goertek, an acoustics solutions and smart hardware provider headquartered in Weifang, is one of the largest mobile earphone and microphone producers in the world in terms of annual sales volume.

Amid global trade turbulence, some of its clients considered partnering with other foreign suppliers to lower overall costs, according to Gao Xiaoguang, vice-president of Goertek.

"We suggested contacting suppliers outside China to see if they can get products with the same quality and standards," Gao said.

After visiting some suppliers in South Asia and Southeast Asia, the clients came back to Goertek because either the quality could not meet the requirement or the costs were high, Gao said.

Goertek's professional team is key to boosting its bargaining power in global trade.

Gao said Goertek has 10,000 development engineers and 10,000 technicians to guarantee the quality of their products. Those experts are the most valuable assets of the company and will not be affected by the changing global environment, he said.

Goertek is not the only company in Weifang that has established strong bargaining power in foreign markets. Himile Group, a tire mold equipment manufacturer in the city, has built its own laboratories to test newly developed equipment.

"We have a large development team to ensure we can introduce a new generation of equipment in three to five years and keep up with the pace of the market," said Shan Jiqiang, general manager of Himile.

Starting in 1995 with about 30 staff members, Himile has grown into an industrial leader with more than 10,000 employees.

The company built a vocational school to train professionals to serve its development needs.

Educational service providers in Weifang have kept introducing new courses to serve companies' demand in recent years.

Li Guangjing, a researcher from Weifang's education bureau, said the city has made changes to 84 courses to meet the market's requirement.

From Left: A Goertek engineer works in the company's acoustic laboratory. Renowned Hungarian fashion model Viktoria Varga tries a VR headset when visiting the company. Photos provided to China Daily

(China Daily 10/29/2019 page12)