Attendees of the 2023 IEC Asia Pacific Regional Young Professional Campaign's launching ceremony pose for a photo at Shenzhen Technology University. Photos courtesy of the university

The 2023 IEC Asia Pacific Regional Young Professional Campaign, a regional campaign for young professionals in standardization, was successfully held at Shenzhen Technology University in Pingshan District from July 12 to 16.  The event was the very first regional campaign for young professionals in the field of standardization hosted in China. 

In a speech via video conference at the campaign’s launching ceremony, Jo Cops, president of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), praised and thanked the efforts the IEC National Committee of China has made in supporting the IEC Young Professionals Program and the IEC Asia-Pacific Regional Young Professional Campaign over the past years. He also expressed the hope of seeing a closer tie with the IEC National Committee of China to jointly create more job opportunities for young professionals to become involved in setting international standards.   

Jo Cops speaks via video conference at the campaign’s launching ceremony.

Guo Chenguang, deputy director-general of the Standard Innovation Management Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, stressed the importance of standardization for technological innovation and industrial development and the role young professionals play in encouraging innovation in standardization. He also expressed the hope of seeing this campaign to serve as a platform for exchanges among young professionals in the Asia-Pacific region.  

Guo Chenguang delivers a speech.

The five-day event, a combination of online and offline sessions that included seminars, lectures, enterprise visits, group discussions and team-building activities, attracted the participation of experts from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, India and Greece. 

Jan-Henrik Tiedemann, former head of the IEC Academy, said in an interview that he felt amazing seeing how young professionals from different countries in the Asia-Pacific region engage and work together and really achieve something together through an array of activities in Shenzhen. He also invited more young professionals to participate in next year’s campaign, which he believes will bring huge benefits to standardization conformity assessment.  

Jan-Henrik Tiedemann speaks at the campaign’s launching ceremony.

Co-organized by the Quality and Standards Academy of Shenzhen Technology University and the International Standardization Talents Training Base (Shenzhen), the event was guided by the IEC Asia-Pacific Regional Center and the IEC National Committee of China.