The opening ceremony of the 2019 Ningbo International Creative Design Week is held on May 10 in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/zj.zjol.com]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province opened its annual international creative design week on May 10. More than 500 world-renowned experts, scholars and entrepreneurs in the creative design field gathered to discuss promoting the real economy through creative designs.

The 2019 Ningbo International Creative Design Week will last from May 10 to 24, during which 18 activities, including forums, matchmaking conferences, exhibitions and training, will be held. Many outstanding designers from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy will come together to share ideas with their counterparts in Ningbo. 

Ningbo is one of the cities in China that started early and developed rapidly in creative design. It initiated the annual design week in 2015, which has boosted the development of the local manufacturing industry. 

The opening ceremony also saw the presentation of the 2018 Hefeng Award, a local award for industrial designers, and an initiative proposed by Ningbo entrepreneurs calling for strengthened independent designing and intellectual property rights protection to enhance the brand value of local companies.

The 2018 Hefeng Award of Ningbo is presented at the opening ceremony to award the best industrial designs of the previous year. [Photo/zj.zjol.com]

In addition, the organizing committee announced three plans to attract creative designers to Ningbo, including collaborating with other domestic cities in introducing talents, inviting professors from outstanding design schools overseas to give short-term training courses, and polishing local designers' skills by running schools with foreign universities. 

It was learned during the opening ceremony that professors from Politecnico di Milano and Technische Universiteit Delft, two universities famous for science and technology in Italy and the Netherlands, are expected to give design lessons in Ningbo.    

Ningbo also signed an agreement with Nottingham Trent University to set up a creative design promotion center at the opening ceremony.