German co plants itself in the countryside

It was a problem Kern-Liebers faced 20 years ago when it first set foot in Taicang.

"Engineers and managers can be transferred to Taicang for three years," Hans-Jochem Steim, who was then president of the group, said. "But it will cost too much to move technicians from Germany to Taicang."

To tackle the shortfall in locally available skills, in 2001 the company joined with Jiangsu Taicang Secondary Vocational School to introduce a dual education system at the school. The training plan was welcomed by Zhou Xinyuan, president of the school and a strong believer in the practice.

"Students can only pick up knowledge when they are put in a real company environment," Zhou says. "Of course, it is great to see all our students booked by German companies long before their graduation."

Kern-Libers had set up its own training center the year before as the company's demand for skilled technicians grew.

Although it usually takes three years to fully train a new employee, Kern-Liebers is generous in its investment of about 5 million yuan a year in training. Last month it opened another training center at its plant so that students can learn better from being put in a real work environment.

Zhang, who was born and grew up in Shanghai, used to commute to Taicang every day in the first 15 years with Kern-Liebers. But he decided to settle down in Taicang three years ago with his family, now that the small city provides all the necessary public facilities.

However, he hopes the local government will introduce more international schools and hospitals over the next five years.

"Taicang also has competitors - neighboring Kunshan and Changshu (Jiangsu province) and more distant cities such as Wuhan (Hubei province), Hefei (Anhui province) and Huai'an (Jiangsu province), are all thinking of copying Taicang's success," Zhang says. "It is the local government's job to provide a more satisfactory environment in Taicang to retain and attract German companies."