THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE BUSINESS

Innovative Sectors

While developing its core businesses, GS1 China also adopted innovative strategies and made a series of scientific and technological advances in 2D barcode, automatic identification and other related areas.

The year 2007 saw the promulgation of China's first 2D barcode national standard with proprietary intellectual property right "GB/T 21049 Chinese Sensible Code". GS1 China held a press conference and a standard announcement conference, and declared its intention to convert Chinese Sensible Code into an international standard. Five Chinese Sensible Code patents, including "Methods for 2D Barcode Generation" and "Methods for Conversion of 2D Barcode Symbols into Coding Information" entered into the review process.

GS1 China developed Chinese-Sensible Code generation controls and general reading engines, organized relevant organizations to conduct research and development of online Chinese-Sensible code equipment, embedded Chinese-Sensible code equipment and Chinese-Sensible code reading mobile phones, and put them to commercial application. Also, GS1 established an application demonstration system, which promoted the application of Chinese-Sensible code in areas such as logistics, warehousing and mobile commerce.

With the improvement of people's living standards, food safety standards received widespread concern throughout the world. Throughout effort, GS1 China obtained significant achievements in food tracking and tracing, which contributed to the national product quality and food safety initiative set forth by government.

To promote the application of the barcode in the food safety tracking and tracing for the Olympic Games, GS1 China signed an agreement with the Administration of Industry and Commerce and Beijing Food safety Inspection Coordination Office called the "Beijing Olympic food tracking and tracing system ". In addition, GS1 China developed 鈥淐oding rule for Food Safety Tracking and Tracing for the Olympic Games鈥?and 鈥淐atalogue Norm of Food Safety Data for the Olympic Games鈥? with its Beijing Branch.

During the Barcode Technology Promotion Week in 2007, a food safety tracking and tracing conference was held which allowed domestic and international experts in the field to exchange their experiences. In order to promote the awareness of GS1 system in the area of food safety, we held a press conference for the GS1 Traceability System in China at the GS1 Advisory Council Meeting in Beijing.

Barcode applications have been extended to the food safety area with great efforts and a number of food safety tracking and tracing system demonstrations have been established on a range of products such as Shandong seafood, Xinjiang cantaloupe, Yunnan pork, Sichuan tea, and the Hetian chicken of Fujian, this consolidates the critical role the barcode plays in our national food safety tracking and tracing system.

In order to accelerate the use of barcode technology in the different sectors of the national economy, increase the social recognition of the barcode, and enable the barcode to play a more positive role in the society, AQSIQ approved GS1 China鈥檚 proposal to implement the "China Barcode Promotion Project" in 2003. Since that time, the number of new product categories that adopted commodity barcode has exceeded 2 million.

GS1 China and its local branches carried out vigorous efforts to verify the qualifications of commodity barcode printing enterprises, an undertaking in which more than seven thousand printing enterprises received qualification certification. These efforts were highly effective in guaranteeing the printing quality of barcodes and ensured that the commodity barcode can continue to spread to new areas.

In recent years, lots of typical application demonstration systems were established, such as:

• Application of GS1 System in the Traceability of Original Planting Places of Chinese Medicinal Materials
• Fujian Yuanshan Hetian Chicken Supply Chain Tracking and Tracing System
• GS1 Radio Frequency Management System for Pig Breeding and Pork Products from Yunnan Province
• Pilot Project for the Application of EAN.UCC System in the Tracing and Tracking of Beef Products
• Research the Application of EAN.UCC System in the Safety Monitoring, Management and Traceability of Deep Processed Food
• EAN.UCC Monitoring and Management System of Qingdao Steel Liquefied Gas Tanks
• Application of Dispatch Unit Barcode in the Distribution Center
• Barcode Management Information System of Retail Pharmaceutical Enterprises
• Promotion and Application of EAN.UCC System in the Construction Sector
• Promotion and Application of EAN.UCC System in the Garment Sector
• Yunnan Jewelry and Precious Stone Promotion Program

These demonstrations dramatically increased the in-depth application of the barcode technology in the fields of retail, logistics distribution, chain store operation, e-commerce, food safety, healthcare, building material and special equipment management.

The project also focused on the promotion of barcode technology in education. The "Barcode Technology and Application" course was introduced in over two hundred institutions of higher learning throughout the country. More than 300 teachers attended training sessions, and more than 50,000 students studied the technology. As a result of these intensified efforts, we have guaranteed a continuing supply of talent in this field.

In summary, the implementation of the "China Barcode Promotion Project" has resulted in the considerable advancement of China's barcode environment, and accelerated the promotion and application of barcode technology in national economy.