Dr. Hausmann’s Interview with CCTV.Com

西门子的紧急救援行动>>

Host: Hello everybody, thank you for watching the CCTV special program: “Great Love Lies in the time of Big Disasters”. First of all, I’d like to introduce to you our guest here--Dr. Richard Hausmann, President & CEO of Siemens Limited China. Dr. Hausmann, Please say “hello” to our friends.

Dr. Hausmann: Thank you very much. “Ni Hao” to everybody on line.

Host: When did you know the Wenchuan earthquake?

Dr. Hausmann: I remember I felt it in Beijing in a meeting. After the quake, I immediately picked up the phone to learn more about the quake. And that was actually the time I knew the earthquake.

Host: When the earthquake hit Sichuan at around 2 o’clock on May 12th, you were tied up in a meeting and felt the tremor in Beijing. Who did you call to learn the details of the earthquake?

Dr. Hausmann: First of all, I called my family in Beijing. They noticed the coffee table moved a little.  Of course we checked the internet and knew the earthquake.

Host: Do you have any friends in Sichuan?

Dr. Hausmann: Actually, we have employees in Sichuan. Of course, we called them to see if they were safe.

Host: As a member of the Management Board, what decision did you make immediately after you got to know the earthquake?

Dr. Hausmann: Such situation is a catastrophe, a severe disaster. I am responsible for Siemens in China.  I called the board members. Of course, we have the standard process for management of such issues. We use usual procedures. We called the quake area to see they were all safe.   

Host:   Please tell us in detail what relief efforts Siemens has been involved in?

Dr. Hausmann: Actually, right away in the same evening, I had a discussion with the board members. We decided to donate 2 million RMB right away through the Red Cross. We felt that immediately after the earthquake, money was needed to help the area.  The next step we took was asking the local authority and friends to know what they really needed. They said they needed medical and water equipment. So we donated medical and water equipment to improve water quality.  

Host: We are informed that the 2 million Yuan donation is Siemens’ first relief effort after the earthquake. It is safe to say that Siemens hadn’t much information about the area immediately after the earthquake.

Dr. Hausmann: Well, that’s true. As an entrepreneur and leader, you have to make decisions in situations that you don’t know everything. We heard it was an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale. We can imagine immediately it was a fearful disaster. And being a leader, I have to make decisions when I don’t have all information of the situation. 

Host:  The decision was made according to Siemens’ crisis response mechanism. It seemed Siemens is experienced with handling such emergencies.

Dr. Hausmann:  Of course, we have gone through situations like this for many times. For example, very early this year in South China, there was a snow disaster. And there are other problems. We as an international company focus on the infrastructure and we have to put procedures in place. I recalled SARS. In situations like this, things need to be done immediately. We have 40 thousand employees in China, so we must have a plan for what to do if this situation takes place.          

Host:  You said just now that Siemens has several offices in Sichuan. In addition to the donation and other relief efforts, have you taken into account the employees’ safety there?

Dr. Hausmann: Yes, you are right. We have quite a few offices there. In Chengdu, we have a regional office headed by Zhang Bingjun. He was a vice president of Siemens Ltd. China. He has 117 employees there. We also have offices in Mianyang and Yibin. Immediately after the quake, we tried to call the offices. It was difficult to get through. The lines were blocked, because so many people were trying to call them. We tried to get information from other sources to see if the employees were safe.  First, we got the good message: nobody was hurt. And then, we also realized that the buildings were damaged.      

Host:  Is there any casualty in the Sichuan offices?

Dr. Hausmann: No, no losses. I know of one individual in the medical service department. At the time of the earthquake, he was servicing and maintaining a CT. He was in the diagnosis room.  He jumped out the room, and was injured a little bit because of the glass. But after the quake, he entered the room and tried to get the diagnosis equipment running again. The diagnosis equipment is important.  I think he is heroic. He tries to do something. And, our management and employees are heroic too in Beijing.      

Host:  He had a good idea of how to save himself, and a sense of responsibility for the equipment. Of course he is quite experienced. Your introduction gives us the impression that Siemens is experienced in dealing with crises. To date, Siemens, as a well-known global company, has built many subsidiaries in China. Would you tell us more about Siemens’ business in Sichuan?

Dr. Hausmann:  We have a lot of activities in Sichuan. We have important businesses there, like energy, transmission and power generation. Especially in Sichuan we have automation, medical equipment and health care businesses. And you know electric appliances of Siemens are very famous. I would say Sichuan is very important to us. It is also part of the government “Go West” policy. The earthquake can hold back some of our activities there, but we will soon recover.   

Host:  As far as I know, Siemens hasn’t built any production base in Sichuan except for the offices.  Do you have any plan in this respect?  

Dr. Hausmann: Actually, we have many companies and factories there. At the moment, we are establishing a transformer factory in Wuhan. We are considering building such a transformer factory in Sichuan. We have a lot of opportunities in the “Go-west” policy of the government and of course, we will evaluate these opportunities carefully.  

Host:  You have told us that Siemens has participated in the relief efforts in a variety of ways since the earthquake, e.g. the 2 million Yuan donation, the 3 million Yuan worth of equipment, water purifying equipment, etc.  Would you tell us more about Siemens’ other relief efforts, say, in terms of children and education?  

Dr. Hausmann: Of course, we had, as you mentioned, money donations and our water and medical equipment amounts to 4 million RMB. I would like to mention two things. Maybe, they are not particular, but they are important to the situation there.    

First, we immediately sent a service team to the area to look after the equipment in hospitals to see if they were broken.  

Second, I found it is interesting. There is a Huaxi Hospital in Changsha. We worked with a telecom company there to set up a remote diagnosis line. So to say, the doctors of the hospital can diagnose the patients in Sichuan. I feel health care is important there.

Last but not least, life must go forward. There are a lot of kids there. We have some experiment boxes and discovery boxes. After the kids had so much trouble, they needed to have something to play with.        

Host:  The “Children’s Day” was just over. Siemens donated 100 sets of "Discovery Boxes" to Chengdu Paotongshu Primary School one day before the holiday. We were very glad to see that the children smiled on the first “Children’s Day” after the quake. Would you tell us how Siemens come up with such a good idea, how to use the "Discovery Boxes" and what their features are?

Dr. Hausmann: Actually, the discovery box was very nice. We are using it. I personally donated a set to a kindergarten in Beijing, and kids like it very much. Siemens is a technology company, so we thought bringing the ideas like how electricity works to the kids is important. It is a very nice box. Kids can play with it. Maybe later they will become engineers and work in Siemens. On Children’s Day, we donated these boxes, and we are glad to see they were happy.    

Host:  Through the pictures and programs, we saw the smiles of children who were using these boxes. It is interesting that a boy changed his future career pursuits after using the box. He said he would be a seismologist in the future so that he was able to predict earthquakes and more people could avoid suffering from such disasters. The innocent words that these children spoke never fail to move us. I think this will make Siemens feel proud.

Dr. Hausmann: I think it’s good to hear you mention the kid. Predicting earthquakes is very difficult. But science will probably do better in future, such as the computers and models of the earth.  Maybe we will never completely avoid the earthquakes, but we can get better prepared if we know them in advance. I hope the little boy can do something about it.  

Host:  Thank Siemens for giving these good gifts and happiness to the children. These problems facing the quake area cannot be totally resolved by temporary donations. Their resolution calls for long -term commitment. Would you tell us what aid programs Siemens has in rebuilding the area? 

Dr. Hausmann: Well, just to summarize, at the moment we were doing everything we can. We donate thing worth 10 million. Immediately after the earthquake, my employees sent emails to me. We installed a mini website called “We Are Together”. There are a lot of donations coming from our employees. I am proud to say that our employees would donate the money our company paid them for summer outing, one thousand Yuan per person. I find it is very good. We feel the strong will and emotion of our employees, not only the management. There is a tradition to help others in China, which I admire. We will do as much as we can.    

You are right. We have a long-term project called Corporate Social Responsibility. We are of course a part of the society. We play a role in the society. In such disastrous situations, we will play our role.  

Host:  Just now you introduced to us the CSR projects of Siemens. As far as I know, the donation of “Discovery Boxes” is part of a Global project called “Generation 21”. Would you tell us in detail what the CSR projects of Siemens consist of?   

Dr. Hausmann: You mentioned our two programs: one is called “Caring Hands”, which is mainly targeted at disaster relief; the other one is called “Generation 21”. You cannot only donate something. You want to make sure that they can use these to help themselves. We donated discovery boxes. But also, our employees teach kids in rural areas English. We have done a lot of these in Schools. I’d like to give you an example of the “Caring Hands”.  There is a big emphasis and a lot of money used in rural areas in Shanxi. We work with local authorities and Ministry of Health Care to develop health care in rural areas. It is a very important task. We contribute our technology and we have given 10 million US dollars. We not only put our system and equipment there, but also learn from the doctors, nurses and experts what needs to change and what needs to be done to make the equipment more suitable to the local areas.  

We have a similar effort called “Clinton Global Initiative” originated by former US president Clinton. We donated water treatment equipment. You know some wastes from hospitals are discharged into rivers. They affect people living there. So we donated water treatment equipment to clean the water from the hospitals. And we try to help develop equipment that is cheap and ideal for the areas. We work with local authorities and companies. And our efforts can benefit the whole society.          

Host: It was not the first time for Siemens to participate in charity activities. Siemens is committed to the public welfare. We appreciate Siemens for its sense of social responsibility and hope that the company can continue these projects. And I know that you have another title “Chairman of the ECFIC”. Before our program comes to an end, would you deliver a message to the people in the quake area to encourage them?

Dr. Hausmann:  Yes, you are right. I am the Chairman of the ECFIC. We work together to improve situations for foreign-invested companies.  As chairman, I would like to, on behalf of the members, extend our deepest condolence and sympathy to the victims. I know that is a big disaster. I am sure the ECFIC members are with these people. I know personally that a lot of companies donated equipment or provided personal help. People in Sichuan are able to cope with the disaster and become even stronger. The central government and Sichuan provincial government will bring us to a point that Sichuan will become even stronger. I wish all the best on behalf of the ECFIC. I would say one thing in Chinese--I am not good at Chinese, but this I can manage-- “Wo Men He Ni Men Zai Yi Qi.”

Host: That’s good.            

Dr. Hausmann: Thank you very much.

Host: Thank you for sending the good wishes to the Chinese people, especially the people in the quake area. In fact, as a foreign-funded enterprise operating in China, Siemens has brought in advanced ideas. And China has given Siemens a great scope for development and a large profit. Through the relief efforts, Siemens gave us the feeling that China and Siemens are moving forward not only hand in hand, but more importantly, heart to heart. Thank Siemens for all it has done for the quake area. Thank you. And thank those who are watching our program online. See you next time.

Dr. Hausmann: Thank you.

Host: Thank you.              

责编：司晓颖