Bioon Interview with Dr. Werner Schiebler

Bioon.com: So, besides helping foreign companies establishing their company in the German market you also carry with you a social responsibility aspect. Besides the water and waste disposal system, what else do you offer? Buildings made of recyclable materials?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: We are not quite there yet. What we do think about though, is taking some of our buildings and add solar panels to it. We have a lot of surface area. We are now increasingly focused on adding regenerative fuel production facilities. We have one biodiesel production already in the park and we are looking for bioethanol production facilities. What we do see however and, you are probably aware of the discussions about it, is the following: there's a first generation of biofuels where you are still to a certain degree competing with areas for food production. We are now looking towards secondary generation technologies, where you don't have that overlap anymore.

Bioon.com: Why is china one of your main targets? Why do you want to invest in China?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: Well first of all, there have always been good relations between China and Germany, for historical reasons. But the first answer is the economical development in China that we have seen in the last twenty to twenty five years and the realization that by now, Chinese companies are supported by the government and do have plans to expand into foreign markets. And so we want to be seen, as one of the premier places for Chinese companies. If they want to come to produce some of their goods in Europe, that they do that in our industrial park. If you think about chemicals, you have the situation where you have to deal with the REACH regulations, you need to have all your chemical products registered in the European union. We are also offering consulting and help on these businesses. That should give that company an advantage by coming to us, because they get that consulting on REACH, on site just by coming to us, and if they fulfil all the conditions they are able to sell their chemicals in Europe. So that's something that we are certainly doing. In general, the industrial park, have grown substantially in the last six to seven years. In fact, out of the 460 hectares that we have, by now forty to fifty are now left available for settlement, the rest is already being used by companies. I believe that's already quite a successful development. What it also means is that now quite a few people come to us and say: "You have done quite a successful job so far, can you help us by giving us some consultancy on how to mange our industrial park?". So we are trying to advise other parks and give away what we have learned. We have done some mistakes but we have also learned from them, so that's the experience we can share. Looking for consulting projects is also why we are in china. Chinese parks have been successful but there are still some issues. So, they come to us to ask, for example about waste treatment and other environmental issues. There are always questions with regards to the technology we can offer. We will see how well that will develop. In addition, there are always questions on how to set up a management company for a park. We are a private company that is running and managing the industrial park. Last year revenues were of nine hundred and one million euros. These revenue comes from the services we provide and from the products we sell. For example energy. We sell energy to our costumers and obviously, we receive fees for waste treatment. But we are also trying to generate revenues from providing advise and offer some of those services outside of the park . And that is why we are in China- economically fast growing society. It really is the place to be.

Bioon.com: So what have been some of the main challenges in trying to expand these services in China?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: Well, the challenges clearly are the following. You need a certain network of people, and as you learn that is the same for any culture, any country you invest in. You need to learn who to talk to. In china, it has to be the people that are responsible for the industrial development at a certain region. You have to contact them, the politicians and the government bodies that are capable of improving the industrial site, You need to contact those and then you have to know the business people, bring them together and just then you can start doing something but as always you need time in China. First, you have to establish your presence, you have to make yourself known and we certainly did not it on our own. We do have business development agencies that are present permanently in China.

Bioon.com: What nationalities is your staff made up of?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: What we have is a team that is cross cultural. We have Chinese people that speak German and German people that speak Chinese. So, we have both interacting and as I said before there are some cross cultural connections between china and Germany. In fact, I find myself very often in the awkward situation that my counterpart in china have read and studied a lot of German. I have heard and read something about Confucius, but I have never actually studied him. So, I should probably do more in that respect, but I do respect the Chinese culture very much and I absolutely enjoy going out for a traditional chinese dinner.

Bioon.com: You have certainly mention this before. But in a summary, how do you think your company effectively contributes to the progress of the Chinese life science market?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: I think the most obvious contribution is providing them a way to expand the business of biotech companies, by establishing them in Germany or in European market. If they come to our park and settle, I think we can do quite a lot for them. In fact, and I have not mentioned this yet, when I was giving my speech in the innovation forum I mentioned, that we do have a Chinese biotech company in our biotech park already. Its called "Beijing R.O.S.E. Europe" and they have a diagnostic procedure for bone marrow transplantation. They established their presence in Germany for two main reasons, first for being part of the network of the German academic culture and second because they wanted their products to be branded as being of German origin - Made in Germany- which gives them a certain status in the Chinese market. So with them, we went through all the initial steps and we did what we could do to help them establish their presence in the market. Now, we would like to see more companies come and join us. In fact, I have made some good contacts here at the biotech China of Shanghai that should at least motivate these companies to undertake the step to come to Germany. I hope they will be very successful.

Bioon.com: Lastly, is there anything you would like to comment or say to the Chinese life science community?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: I am very positively impressed by this convention, we made a lot of contacts, and we also had a lot of opportunities to present ourselves. It was well prepared in advance. When you are still in Germany, you need to be able to do certain things which were done very quickly, like sending our material and files for our posters. It all worked out quite well. The one proposal I would make is, since I have been here I have learned that there is also a big association of pharmaceutical companies meeting - Bioforum, which is also meeting here in Shanghai at the same time. There are some connections between the two. So, there might be an idea in the future of bringing them closer together. From my point of view, both sides would benefit. But that's the really the only thing, I would mention. Otherwise I have enjoyed, and I will enjoy staying at the meeting until the last day.

Bioon.com: Alright, perfect, thank you!

Dr. Werner Schiebler: Thank you very much!

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