Editor’s Note:

As the year 2024 is around the corner, Shenzhen Daily has interviewed a number of senior executives of local foreign-invested companies, who walk us through their firms’ footprints within this year while exuding unwavering confidence in their future development. This is the fifth of our series of reports.

Liu Minxia

mllmx@msn.com

AT its outset, 2023 was predicted to be a year of reset and rebound for businesses, and this rings particularly true to those with solid foundations like Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd.

Recapping the company’s journey from this past year, Ma Tianshi, general manager of the wholly owned subsidiary of German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers, hailed 2023 as a year of major milestones for the Shenzhen company. Riding on the back of a firm footing it has established in Shenzhen in the past two decades, the company celebrated a year of production growth, innovations, expanded investment, and strategic partnerships in 2023, he said in an exclusive interview with Shenzhen Daily.

Firm footing

Since taking root in Shenzhen’s high-tech industrial park in 2002, Siemens Shenzhen has evolved into the largest R&D and production base for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography systems for Siemens Healthineers outside of Germany, and the only base with a complete value chain in Siemens Healthineers’ global MRI business.

“In the past two decades, the Shenzhen company, carrying the technological heritage of Siemens Healthineers, has become deeply rooted in the fertile land of Shenzhen, and grown into an iconic case of foreign investment in Shenzhen and even the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” Ma said.

In 2018 when then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to Shenzhen, Siemens Shenzhen was one of the two companies she visited during her brief stopover in the city. In 2019, Siemens Shenzhen won an award from Shenzhen’s commerce bureau for its contribution to the city’s development as a foreign-invested enterprise. In 2020, the company was recognized as one of the 10 outstanding foreign enterprises in  Shenzhen.

New momentum

Aiming to play a part in the development of a “Healthy China,” a Chinese Government initiative, through a localization strategy, Siemens Shenzhen has introduced several products to meet the needs of the Chinese market, which became huge hits and helped the company achieve  back-to-back sales success in 2023, according to Ma.

Aside from producing for the Chinese market, the company has also been tasked to meet the demand from other Asian countries and the Americas. “By May 2023, Siemens Shenzhen had delivered 8,000 units of whole machines to global customers in more than 100 countries and regions, which was another significant milestone,” Ma said. “At its inception, the company could only produce a single model of an entry-level MRI system. Now, we’re capable of churning out almost the entire line of Siemens Healthineers’ MRI systems, as well as floor-mounted and suspended angiography systems.”

Another milestone Siemens Shenzhen has achieved this year is in R&D. Expanding collaborative partnerships in R&D with both local and international teams, the company’s Shenzhen R&D team, which accounts for nearly 25% of its some 1,200 employees in the city and has developed on its own a number of MRI systems that are being used worldwide, has been working closely with Siemens Healthineers’ German and U.K. teams in product development, breaking down several technological barriers and achieving many fruitful results, according to Ma.

In addition, Siemens Shenzhen has also been working with Shenzhen University on a key municipal-level technological research project, which, once accomplished, will be a significant breakthrough in key technologies in key fields even for the country.

The strong growth momentum has given the company confidence in doubling down on investment in Shenzhen. In May, Siemens Shenzhen signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Nanshan District Government, announcing an additional investment of over 1 billion yuan (US$142 million) to establish a new R&D and production site in the district. “Upon the completion of the forthcoming facility, Siemens Shenzhen will embark on a new chapter of dual-site operation in Shenzhen,” Ma said.

On Dec. 12, the company signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with the city government, planning to launch several world-leading high-end products.

Mutual growth

Over the past 20 years, Siemens Shenzhen has been growing together with Shenzhen’s and China’s high-end medical device sector, Ma said.

“Shenzhen is strategically located and has become a strongly competitive city in terms of economic development. The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has also brought a wealth of business opportunities to the city,” Ma said. “Shenzhen is an accommodating city with an innovative spirit, an efficient government, and an abundance of high-caliber talent, which makes it very attractive to foreign companies such as Siemens Healthineers.”

He also singled out the fact that Shenzhen started very early in developing its high-end medical device sector, boasting a mature and complete industrial chain, which was one of the important reasons why Siemens Healthineers expanded its reach to Shenzhen in the first place.

During its development, Siemens Shenzhen values its localization strategy, achieving a localization rate of 80%, and fostering a large number of local suppliers, Ma said. This has also contributed to the gradual maturity of the local industrial chain. “Through Siemens Healthineers, we have also introduced high-quality local suppliers into the global supply chain system, sending local industry players onto the world stage,” Ma added.