Speech on the the Serge Dumont Fund Ceremony in Beijing

On behalf of Bekaert, I feel extremely honored and proud to have the opportunity to stand here in front of you. And to give a speech at the occasion of this awarding ceremony and to the awarded students.
As you may already know, Bekaert, a Belgian based multinational, was founded back in year 1880 and this year marks the 125 anniversary of the company. Through these 125 years, Bekaert had endeavored in delivering to the community with good products and services and solutions, but also growth potentials for the people. And this was done through adhering to its 2 major competencies: advanced metal transformation and advanced coating technologies. Bekaert entered into China in 1993, with its first joint venture in Jiangyin, the Jiangsu province. Today, Bekaert has 13 industrial operations, 1 technical center, 1 educational center, and 1 Asian-Pacific regional headquarter. Bekaert is determined to further contribute to the development of China, not only by providing good products and services , but also devolopment of people also through its Corporate Social Responsibility as part of its global strategy.

I know that the Tsinghua University was started in 1911 and through the years, this university had contributed to its motherland with an abundant number of well-educated young people to engage in the campaign of making China a strong and affluent nation. I know you have contributed such big names such as Mr Hu Jintao and Mr Zhu Rongji. And I know you now have 27,000 students in the campus, a big number in European terms. And I also know that you have 16 state-level labs and so many other labs. And, I know that Tsinghua is dedicated to the well being of the Chinese society.

Mr. Dumont once asked me why we want to sponsor the event. I believe what I mentioned before, is self-explaining: we both want to serve better the growth and development of China. “Communication” is the basis for people to know and understand, and thus to work together with each other. This requires many young, talented people joining the efforts and we want to offer our hands in the project. Just a simple piece of communications input: in Oct 2004, 5 companies in Jiangyin had joined the “Tsinghua university-enterprise co-operation committee”.

To end my speech, I would like to give my best wishes to Tsinghua University and all people here: great success, good health and many more happiness.

Thank you all.