The Chinese delegation was led by Mr Hu Chunhua, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China. The different dignitaries accompanying him were Mr Fu Ziying, vice-minister for trade, Mr Zhai Jun, China’s Ambassador to France, Mr Xin Guobin, vice-minister for industry and information technology, Mrs Zou Jiayi, vice-minister for finance, Mr Qu Dongyu, vice-minister for agriculture and rural affairs and their advisers, in addition to their respective private secretaries. The French political dignitaries accompanying the Chinese delegation were Mr Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and Mr Pascal Mailhos, prefect for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
This major visit took place at 10:25 am. It began with a general presentation of CTC by Mr Frédéric Gaudin, lasting approximately fifteen minutes, accompanied by a slideshow.
The group then made their way to the CTC tannery where the head of the Leather & Sustainable Development departments, described the different activities performed there for around ten minutes. He also mentioned the benefits of having all the tanning equipment available. The vice premier took a keen interest, asking many questions.
The group then continued their visit with the “footwear” section, where the head of the “footwear” department for CTC, presented the projects and innovations underway within CTC. It was then the turn of the head of the “leather goods” department to present the assorted know-how of the leather goods section to them. Once again, everyone was delighted with the interest shown by the Chinese dignitary.
The group then visited the biomechanical laboratory to watch demonstrations of the work undertaken there (stroke with damper and bag fitting) which were presented and commented on by the head of CTC’s “technological innovation” department. The visit continued in the physics laboratory where “technical support” manager presented the different tests that CTC can perform to assess the quality of its clients’ products. The head of CTC’s “technological innovation” department then demonstrated the “test robots”.
The visit ended with a presentation by documentation manager of CTC’s precious heritage: ancient books from the library and the leather sample library. It was also in the leather sample library that the political dignitaries had their photos taken to capture the moment for posterity, accompanied by Mr Frédéric Gaudin and Mr Jean-Pierre Gualino.
All the visitors then left around midday, with a major security presence.
