Thus, after more than half a year of negotiations between the two sides, on March 19, 1980, the first industrial Sino-foreign joint venture agreement in China's machinery industry was signed in Beijing. On July 4, 1980, China Schindler was formally established, with the Chinese side taking a 75% stake (paid with plants, equipment and the inventory of the Shanghai and Beijing Elevator Factories), and the foreign sidetaking a 25% stake (Swiss Schindler 15%, Jardine Schindler 10%, paid with cash).

This triggered a wave of foreign investments in China's elevator industry. More importantly, the beneficial and fruitful joint venture exploration between Schindler and Shanghai Elevator Factory provided a convincing blueprint for many Sino-foreign joint ventures in the future.

More than 30 years’hard work in China

Moving on to the subject of today’s interview, Daryoush Ziai, the incumbent CEO of Schindler China, talked about his company’s history in China with a sense of pride. “At the time, the Schindler Group and Mr. Schindler had this foresight and also the entrepreneurship to realize that China is going to be one day a very significant market, so very early on, he decided to make an investment in China and bet on the future growth of this very important market.”

Daryoush Ziai receives an exclusive interview with eastday.com

In his view, China's reform and opening up, especially urbanization and real estate development, has brought huge opportunities to Schindler. By the beginning of this century, China had not only developed into the world's largest elevator market, but also possessed the world's strongest elevator production capacity. It is truly the world's factory and greatest consumer market for elevators.