BAIC Group and Vision China Talk About New Era of China-Africa Cooperation

The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation marks a new start for China-Africa comprehensive strategic cooperation. In response to the summit, China Daily and BAIC Group jointly held the fourth Vision China event, themed "China & Africa: Growing Together", at Beijing Language and Culture University on the evening of September 6. Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office; Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily; Du Feijin, head of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee; Wei Gang, director of strategic planning at BAIC Group attended the event together with officials of some African embassies, leaders and students of the University of International Business and Economics and Beijing Language and Culture University. 

The event invited Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, David Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum, Hodan Osman Abdi, adviser to the president of Somalia and executive director of the Center for East African studies at Zhejiang Normal University; and Zahra R. Baitie, China director of Development Reimagined and founder of Beijing Africa Week, and other famous people who are engaged in international exchanges in different fields as guest speakers, talking about the new era of China-Africa cooperation and the development of win-win new future. BAIC Group demonstrated its new concept of open and development as well as its positive role in promoting China-Africa exchanges and cooperation via this event. As a key enterprise of China's automobile industry, BAIC Group has always adhered to the trend of major power diplomacy in its process of promoting internationalization. So far, BAIC Group has established complete vehicle and KD factories in more than 30 countries and regions. Its market has spread over more than 80 countries and regions around the world, which is one of the fastest growing Chinese automobile brands in export business. On the basis of its four overseas bases, the Beijing-based BAIC is building an international layout to build comprehensive competitiveness and accelerate the pace of going global. Among them, the BAIC South Africa plant is not only the overseas manufacturing center in the African continent, but also a new sample for China-Africa cooperation created by BAIC Group. 

This July, at the BAIC South Africa plant, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa jointly started the production line through remote video connection, witnessing the successful launch of the first BAIC X25 that manufactured in South Africa. This showcased that BAIC Group actively responded to China’s opening-up policy, which is also the glory moment for BAIC Group to adapt to the trend of the times and boost China-Africa win-win development.

According to Wei Gang, under the guidance of China-Africa comprehensive strategic partnership, BAIC Group will continue to completely open internationalization transformation on the basis of the construction of South Africa plant. Focusing on the market, products, brand and benefits, and following the main path of capacity and market export, BAIC Group will effectively link new demands of industrialization development in African countries with BAIC’s capacity cooperation. With cultural integration as the link, we will unite the solidarity and mutual trust of China-Africa enterprises, and realize extensive and intensive complementary advantages of the two sides in the market, policy and financing. BAIC Group will aim to build a benchmark for China-Africa enterprise cooperation and promote the development of win-win cooperation between China and Africa. It will spare no effort to make new and greater contributions to the further advancement of China-Africa exchanges and cooperation.