The 2nd "China Rare Earth Industry Development Forum" Held in Baotou

From August 8th to 10th, 2010, the 2nd Baotou, China China Rare Earth Industry Development Forum was held in the Rare Earth High-Tech Zone of Baotou, which was themed on the development and desirable win-win result of Chinese luminescent material industrial chain . The forum was hosted jointly by the Division of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Baotou Municipal People s Government and the Chinese Society of Rare Earths. And it was co-chaired by Mr. Gan Yong, Vice President of CAE and Chairman of the Chinese Society of Rare Earths, and Mr. Hu Ercha, Mayor of Baotou Municipality. This forum was attended by CAE Memebr He Jilin, CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) Member Su Keng, and administrative personnel from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEF), and State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), officials of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Baotou Municipal Party Committee, and Baotou Municipal People s Government, together with more than 300 experts specialized in the field of rare earth luminescent material from across China andrepresentatives of various enterprises. The participants of the forum enjoyed extensive and in-depth discussion, with their focus on the industry chain of rare earth raw material rare earth luminescent material rare earth energy-saving lamps and lights illumination electrical equipment , new policies for national rare earth industry administration, new scientific research achievements, and the industrial chain of rare earth luminescent material.

At the opening ceremony of this forum, CAE Vice President Gan Yong said that rare earth had always enjoyed tremendous attention from all over the world, for this material is considered to be playing a significant strategic role in emerging modern green energy technology, high technology and national defense military system. Rare earth is regarded as a resource of strategic importance in developed countries. Therefore, researches on rare earth functions and relevant application industries are taken extremely seriously, considered as key and major fields for further development. In short, rare earth has become an indispensable strategic resource in world economic development.

Gan continued to say that China is the biggest producer, supplier and consumer of the world rare earth metal and its alloy. And China s rare earth industry assumes a very important position in the world rare earth industry. The subject of this forum, which is mainly the ways to further improve and perfect the industrial chain of rare earth luminescent material, conforms very well to the developing orientation of illumination, new plane vision and the field of energy conservation set in China s Twelfth Five-Year Plan. This forum is certainly helpful for us to have a better understanding and sharper insight on how to tackle the big technical problems in the production and application of rare earth fundamental materials and rare earth new materials. It is believed that, under the leadership and support of the city government, with joint efforts made by experts in the rare earth field, we will strive to achieve major breakthroughs regarding patent technology barrier of developed countries, further propel the rare earth related science & technology and industry in a more comprehensive manner, thus achieving real transformation of China s original rare earth resources advantage to greater economic competitiveness, which is certainly more desired.

It is known that, at the first Baotou, China Rare Earth Industry Development Forum held in August 2009, participants discussed in great depth about the development and desirable win-win result of rare earth permanent-magnet material industrial chain in China , the policies for national rare earth industry administration, the production of rare earth, market environment, along with the application of rare earth permanent-magnet materials. And now we are happy to see that, in the past one year, our research and development ability on rare earth material, as well as our production ability, has made steady progress, thanks to the efforts of many and all kinds of different yet effective measures taken, (By Zuo Jiahe, Ba Te er and Zhang Zehua, August 2010; translated by Liu Chang)