This year, the subsidiary in China has organized a jubilee celebration with employees and customers on the occasion of its 20th birthday. After initial talks with partners and customers, ebm-papst opened its doors as an independent company with 13 employees in Shanghai's free trade zone. The Chinese government granted ebm-papst special permission to do so, allowing the German company to avoid entering into a joint venture with a Chinese partner. Initially, the company's goal was to import fans and motors from Germany in order to sell them in the Chinese market. There were many reasons for the expansion into China. One was to "follow the customers from the West" – more and more of whom were expanding toward Asia and especially China in the mid-1990s – as Thomas Borst, Managing Director Sales and Marketing explained in his speech at the celebration in Shanghai. Another reason, according to Borst, was that "early on, ebm-papst recognized the enormous potential the Chinese market held" and was eager to tap it. Four years later, the concept of local production for the Chinese market was implemented with the construction of the first production company in November 2000. However, today's technology leader was not interested in transferring jobs or entire manufacturing facilities from Germany to so-called low-wage countries. ebm-papst's objective was to be in a position to satisfy regional needs more individually, thus increasing its market share. Based on the successful strategy, the company built an additional manufacturing company in Shanghai only five years later in August 2005. Opening the research and development center in 2012 was a key milestone in the history of the Chinese subsidiary. The first R & D center outside Germany was established to expand the number of development partnerships with Asian customers and enable the production of customized products for the Chinese/Asian markets. In highly modern laboratories for air performance and acoustics measurement, both in-house developments and customer applications are tested for their noise levels, energy efficiency and flawless operation. Since its establishment in 1996, ebm-papst China has experienced extremely positive development. The company has grown from its initial 13 employees to 1,700 today. In addition to the European Economic Area, China and Asia are one of ebm-papst Group's largest markets. At the birthday celebration, Mr. Borst thanked the employees and customers for their commitment and many years of loyalty, attributing a strategically key continued role for the development of ebm-papst to China.