The IEE, the largest professional engineering society in Europe, is driving to win members and provide services to Chinese engineers, spearheaded by the opening of a new office in Beijing. As manufacturing booms in China, there is increasing demand among engineers for access to knowledge and internationally recognised professional development schemes, which the UK-based IEE will provide.
The IEE has an office in Hong Kong serving the Asia-Pacific region but expects the opening of the Beijing office — headed by a former diplomat in China, Paul Han — to encourage greater interaction with engineers in mainland China. The Institute has more than 120,000 members, more than 20,000 of them based outside the UK. Currently, there are around 300 very influential and senior figures who are members in China and the IEE works closely with universities to support students.
IEE president professor John O’Reilly, explained: “As industry becomes increasingly global in nature engineers are demanding professional bodies that can serve them on a global basis to provide access to knowledge and professional development. Similarly, as companies in China expand into global markets they want to recruit engineers who have internationally recognised standards.”