14-12-2006 
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests, First
of all, let me introduce myself.I started in the bus business in 1965, now more
than 40 years ago, as the general manager of BAAV in Belgium. In
1971, I founded Busworld, the first ever specialized bus exhibition in the world.
We created it in Kortrijk, a small Belgium town, situated at 100 Km from Brussels,
the capital of Europe. During
its 35 years of existence, it grew and grew, and it became the world's most important
meeting place for the bus building industry. It became more and more the place
where the decisive development measures concerning bus building were taken, last
time more than 25000 professionals met there, coming from 108 different countries.
As people's
mobility is one of the world's most important problems and as only the bus building
industry can solve this problem, I am particularly happy to be here, present today,
on this celebration of Yutong's durability event. I
find the development of the Chinese bus industry that much important for the globalization
of our industry, that I especially came over from Europe, together with one of
our technical specialists, Mr. Jan Verhaegen, to be among you on this event. We
started in China in the year 2000. We are now 6 years older and I saw happen a
double evolution. The Chinese bus building industry became the most important
one in the world. Just imagine! In 6 years of time! And
in those 6 years I witnessed also this most remarkable evolution that is the export
of Chinese buses to other parts of the world. I see Chinese bus builders participating
in all the existing Busworlds. This means they are more and more interested in
selling their products out of China. This is a most important phenomena for the
Chinese economy indeed. Of
course you will have to take attention to certain facts if you really want to
sell internationally.
There is not only the homologation of your makes
and the selling apparatus in the countries or parts of the world where you want
to sell. There
is above all, the durability of your product and your after sales service.
You
should be absolutely attentive to these two factors and I am glad to see that
Yutong is attentive to durability. During
this period I was also very much surprised by the unbelievable fast development
of the quality and standards of the production of Chinese buses. In
a period of 5 years your evolution was more important than the European one in
25 years of time. This is perhaps one of the biggest surprises of my whole career.
There is also
the fact that the gap between the Chinese bus building industry and the European
one is getting smaller every day. No
wonder Busworld Shanghai became already the most important bus event in Asia.
And I foresee the day when it will become the most important bus event in the
world, surpassing the European one.
This is of course a very good evolution
for your. For your future lies not only in China and not only in Asia, but certainly
is a worldwide matter.
That is why it is most important for you to be
actively present on the world market and to be as active as possible in every
Busworld event, as this is everywhere the place where "it" happens.
You are of course present on the Chinese market, but you should absolutely
be present on the world market! Let
me tell you a secret. We planned Busworld Africa next year in Lagos, Nigeria,
on the 22nd to 24th of February. This was an absolute error of our part, as it
falls during the period of the Chinese New Year Holiday and it handicaps the Chinese
participation. So just because of the growing importance of the Chinese bus industry
in Africa, we had to postpone the show. It will now take place a week later, on
the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March. You
have to thank this phenomena of growth to companies like Yutong. So I am particularly
happy to be among you today, being the guest of Yutong, who is now the most important
bus builder in Asia.
And who was during the last three Asian Coach Weeks,
which are taking place each time during the week preceding Busworld Shanghai,
elected by the international jury (composed mostly of European experts) each time!-
Bus builder of the Year. I
can only pronounce this wish: that I hope that more and more bus builders can
be like Yutong, improving this way the whole Chinese bus building industry. I
see before my eyes your bright looking future, I believe in it! I
know you will realize it. And
I wish you all the best.
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