On January 9, when we held the DUSA first event in 2020: DUSA New Year Roundtable under the title "China Outlook 2020", no one would have thought that the COVID-19 epidemic would appear and have such a big impact on our lives and work. After the outbreak, a WeChat group named "DUSA nCoV Crisis Information" was set up on January 28th to update members and friends on the latest situation of the epidemic, relevant government policies, help members and friends abroad return to China, and provide member companies with procurement of anti-epidemic materials. 217 people joined this WeChat group, shared information and supported each other.

In June and October, DUSA held two workshops focused on legal risk of labor management and policy update of visa & PR application. Both of these two workshops were arranged based on members requirements. DUSA invited government officials and related professionals to answer questions and provide support to our members.

In August, DUSA also arranged a company tour event to a Suzhou local listed company: Good-ARK. It was a great opportunity for our members to visit companies with different backgrounds and learn from each other, making our events more diversified.

Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, offline events were stopped for several months. DUSA began to arrange some online trainings and workshops. On March 31, DUSA held the 2020 online AGM. 30 members attended this event. From April to May, 7 webinars are held and 206 people attended these webinars.

On May 27, we held the hybrid Roundtable at CAREL Electronic (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. There were 23 offline participants and 19 online participants.

Such hybrid events meet the requirement of social distance and provide a platform for our members still abroad to participate in our activities. To ensure the best quality for these hybrid events, DUSA invested in equipment for online broadcasting.

Most DUSA members are SMEs, therefore most of our trainings were related with SME topics with a particular focus on Manufacturing.

In 2020, DUSA held 13 training courses, including management skill, supply chain management, project management, finance management and skills development for Microsoft office software. 269 people participated in these training events.

In September, DUSA organized the 2020 salary survey with one of our members, Asia Solutions. More than 100 companies in Greater Suzhou and Yangtze Delta region attended this survey. Most of them are SMEs in manufacturing industry.

We also co-organized the 3rd SMAS Forum to offer members opportunity to know the latest and most popular topics regarding smart manufacturing application.

Another activity for reinforcing links between our members was our Football tournament. DUSA-Decathlon Football tournament was held on November 2020. 16 teams, 14 of which are DUSA members, played in a friendly yet intense competition.

 DUSA is a private, non–profit association founded in 2002 by German companies in Suzhou. Our goal is to provide information and Competence; collaboration and pooling together of resources and networking (Business, Social) to our members. We are steadfast in our goal and mission.

On October 17th, DUSA Board members held the annual strategy meeting. The target for this meeting was to review the vision, mission of DUSA and all services from past year, to make necessary adjustments and improve overall value to all members. The following key points were identified and discussed during the meeting, aimed at continuing to make DUSA a unique and strong partner to our members.

• Non-profit business association
• Be a trusted organization
• No political positioning/nor driven by political partisanship
• Mainly focus in serving manufacturing companies
• Our members are mainly SMEs
• Our main working language is English
• Friendly atmosphere
• We listen to our members Based on these strategic points, the DUSA BoD reviewed all running services and products, prepared relevant actions which will help further enhance DUSA value to our members.

2020 draws to a close. It has been a very unique year due to the epidemic. We will continue focusing on our mission of providing unparalleled support for our members – now and in the future. We would like to hear the feedback and suggestions from our members. Meanwhile, we also invite you to share with us your intention of membership renewal for 2021.

Thank you again for your commitment and partnership. DUSA is strong because of you.

We look forward to our continued partnership.

Best Regards

DUSA Team