AsiaNet 78176

GUANGZHOU, China, April 4, 2019 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/--

On April 3, the 2019 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference, China was held at the Baiyun International Convention Center. The annual meeting focused on the new actions and new responsibilities of Guangzhou in the new era through the plenary session, 22 featured sub-forums, "Guangzhou Night" and Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition, to continuously release attractiveness of the Greater Bay Area to the world.

At the meeting on April 3, King Cheung, Chairman of the Board of Cedar Holdings, delivered a keynote speech on the theme of "Capturing the historical opportunities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to promote the high-quality development of the modern supply chain industry", and shared the stories of the growth of Cedar Holdings along with the development of Guangzhou city. He said that as the commerce and trade capital for thousand years, Guangzhou, an "old city" with a strong historical heritage, has turned to become the world's first-tier city and national central city in the new era and shown a strong "new vitality". Today, with the favorable conditions for the bay area construction, Guangzhou has ushered in a historic strategic opportunity to develop and leap forward, and shouldered the glorious mission of building a world-class bay area.

Cheung believes that the current global commodity market is showing three major trends. First, the focus of global trade is shifting from commodities to services. The growth of service trade is not only faster than commodity trade, but also creates higher value. Second, the growth rate of the global trade value has slowed down. On the contrary, the proportion of intra-regional trade has increased. It shows that the emerging economies such as China has improved significantly in industrial maturity, with increasingly mature supply chain systems. The intra-region has seen stronger ability in industrial cooperation, resource allocation, and self-production and sales. Third, the status of the modern supply chain in the global trading system is becoming more and more important. Looking at these trends, Cheung came to a conclusion, "If manufacturing is the backbone of national strength, then modern supply chain is the cornerstone and blood of manufacturing, an important indicator of national competitiveness, and the key for competition among the world-class bay areas. Observing the rise of the three major Bay Areas of New York, San Francisco and Tokyo, we can find a common feature that the supply chain industry has played a vital role in industrial synergy and vertical integration in the Bay Area, successfully boosting the economic takeoff of the bay areas.

Cheung said that at present, the best region for China to develop a modern supply chain industry is in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, just in Guangzhou. On the one hand, the Greater Bay Area, especially Guangzhou, has the most unique soil for industrial development. "The Greater Bay Area has gathered 80 percent of China's supply chain enterprises and boasted more than 300 unique industrial clusters, with the developed logistics and transportation systems, and the great potential for economic development and consumption. It provides an excellent industrial foundation and vast hinterland for development of the supply chain industry. Specifically, Guangzhou has the incomparably comprehensive resources such as education, culture, health care, clothing, food, shelter and transportation in the Greater Bay Area and even the whole country. It is the most attractive central city with the strongest comprehensive strength in the Greater Bay Area. Guangzhou has comprehensively strengthened the urban planning as an international commercial center and comprehensive transportation hub, which is precisely aligned with the policy environment required for the development of the supply chain industry."

On the other hand, the high-quality development of the modern supply chain industry will become the core driving factor for the Greater Bay Area to realize "curve overtaking" in the competition among the world-class bay areas. "Currently, the Greater Bay Area is in an important period of accelerated transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and accelerated innovation and development of emerging industries. Issues in the Greater Bay Area such as factor circulation, industrial synergy and social division of labor in major cities need to be resolved. It is worth noting that the modern supply chain will make a difference here. Its basic industrial service capabilities can effectively promote the distribution of core resources and accurate matching of supply and demand in urban agglomerations and industrial clusters, further accelerate industrial integration, promote integrated innovation, and enhance the overall efficiency of the industrial chain, which can help the Greater Bay Area cultivate a modern industrial system with international competitiveness and consolidate the cornerstone for the industry take-off," Cheung said.

How to view that China has lifted the modern supply chain to an unprecedented national strategic height as a new growth point and new driving force?

"In our view, developing the modern supply chain in Guangzhou and the Greater Bay Area not only enjoys a vast market space, but also reflects the responsibility and mission of the enterprises to serve the national strategy. At present, under the development idea of taking root in Guangzhou and expanding across the world, Cedar Holdings has established branches in more than 10 major commodity countries and regions such as Switzerland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, etc., and is actively building a global supply chain," said Cheung, adding that Cedar Holdings has determined to build the world's top comprehensive conglomerate in Guangzhou, to become China's answer to Glencore and the cornerstone and blood of serving the "Made in China".

Cheung thinks that under the dual historical opportunities of China's reform and opening-up and the Greater Bay Area construction, Guangzhou has entered a golden period of strategic opportunity. It is the best time for Guangzhou, and also the best time for investment, endeavor and taking root in Guangzhou. "We believe that the big era gives birth to Great Guangzhou, and the Great Guangzhou breeds the big enterprises. Guangzhou has created Cedar Holdings, the Fortune Global 500, and will surely create more Fortune Global 500 companies in the future."

On the same day, as an important part of the annual conference, the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Modern Supply Chain Development Forum" hosted by Cedar Holdings attracted more than 300 participants from the supply chain industries at home and abroad. Experts and scholars from institutions such as Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Minmetals, Ouyeel.com, OneConnect Financial Technology jointly discussed the opportunities for the development of modern supply chain industry.

Participants said that the Greater Bay Area, especially Guangzhou, is the best region for China to develop the modern supply chain industry, with an extremely broad market space. The high-quality development of the modern supply chain industry will also help promote the Greater Bay Area into a world-class Bay Area and a world-class city cluster.

Fan Jiayu, Chairman of Cedar Holdings, said at the forum that at present, Cedar Holdings has opened up the entire industrial chain of the commodity supply chain and achieved full coverage of non-ferrous metals, ferrous metals, chemicals, energy and other commodities, which enables it to provide all-round services covering all aspects of the supply chain to the customers, after one-time customer connection. At the same time, Cedar Holdings has improved the overall efficiency of the industry chain by providing accurate and efficient supply chain financial services to reduce costs and increase efficiency for customers.

Source: Cedar Holdings

--BERNAMA