FUJIAN’S TRADE LINKS W BRICS NATIONS DEEPE
Pivotal port and host city Xiamen sees growth in throughput, Yuan Shenggao rep
East China’s Fujian province and its second-largest city Xiamen, which is currently hosting the ninth BRICS Summit, have witnessed increasing trade and personnel exchanges with other BRICS countries in recent years.
In the first half of the year, the province’s trade with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa — the four other BRICS nations — grew by 67.7 percent to 49.4 billion yuan ($7.54 billion), according to statistics from the provincial commerce department. During the same period, Xiamen’s trade with the countries reached 23 billion yuan, up 60 percent year-on-year, said Han Jingyi, vice-mayor of the city, in August.
Meanwhile, the countries established 10 new enterprises in Fujian in the first six months of the year, with investment totaling 200 million yuan, more than seven times the figure during the same period last year.
By June, 63 Chinese enterprises from Fujian have launched branches or offices in BRICS countries, with agreed investment reaching $480 million, according to government statistics.
Fuyao Group, a leading Chinese manufacturer of automotive and industrial glass based in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, invested $200 million in building its first overseas factory in Kaluga, Russia, in 2011. Ninety percent of the plant’s employees are local workers. Cao Dewang, the group’s board chairman, said: “We tapped the overseas market starting from Russia and then built plants in the United States and Europe, making us one of the largest automotive glass producers in the world.”
Hu Jingpei, president of Xiamen Wanli Stone Stock, said the overseas development of the company epitomized the increasing trade exchanges between China and other BRICS countries. In 2003, the company built a stone-processing factory in South Africa. The revenue of the factory, which employs more than 60 local executives and sales personnel, is expected to reach $10 million soon, Hu said.
The company is also the sole Chinese dealer of India’s Gem Granites and Brazil’s Guidonni, both leading stone processing enterprises in their own countries. In 2012, Hu set up the Sunnyna Ballet Arts Center with its Russian trade partners and invited graduates from Russia’s Vaganova Ballet Academy to work as teachers, making the center the most well-known ballet training facility in the province.
Currently, granite materials imported to China from other BRICS countries account for more than 70 percent of such goods passing through Xiamen.
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