"I'd like to welcome everybody to Nanhai New District in Weihai, it's really a fantastic place," said Juha Frans Adrien Ven, a Belgian entrepreneur in a recent interview.

Ven is the president of Huiyin Group, a new energy company located in Nanhai.

After graduating from University of Antwerp with a master's degree in engineering design, Ven worked at a solar power company in Israel for several years.

Thanks to this work experience, Ven saw an opportunity in the new energy industry and learned about the technical difficulties facing solar power generation, which laid a solid foundation for his future business ventures.

Ven moved his start-up company from Beijing to Nanhai in 2009.

"Nanhai is a great place to live and work, with a pleasant climate, picturesque landscapes, and efficient and high-quality government services," he said.

"Today, China is attaching more and more importance to the development of clean energy and in the future will become the largest market for the solar power industry. This will not only change my company's former export-oriented economic structure, but will also make more contributions to the development of clean energy in China," he said.

During the pandemic, Ven's business and life were affected.

"I was particularly moved by the help of my colleagues and local government departments," Ven said.

"China has made great efforts to bring the epidemic under control quickly and help companies resume production and work smoothly. With the help of the local government, our business quickly got back on track, and our export business is doing even better than before the outbreak," he said.

Due to his outstanding achievements in the field of solar photothermal conversion materials, Ven was awarded the "Qilu Friendship Award" by the Shandong provincial government in December 2013.

In 2017, he was conferred the title of honorary citizen of Shandong province.