CP patriarch Dhanin meets China's PM, promises more investments

CP Group senior chairman Dhanin Chearavanont led his team during the meeting with high-ranking Chinese government officials at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday (August 21).

The state building, located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, is used mainly for legislative and ceremonial activities by the Chinese government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Premier Li told the visiting executives that China welcomed the CP Group and overseas Chinese businesspeople and their companies from around the world for their “ardent investments” in China, which have facilitated the country’s further development.

The premier noted that over the past 45 years of China’s reform and opening of the economy, several overseas Chinese had contributed to its progress.

He thanked Dhanin for his contributions to China’s economic and social development over the past decades as a major investor and president of the overseas Chinese businesspeople's association in China.
 

Overseas Chinese refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Dhanin, one of Thailand’s richest people, responded that the CP Group had confidence in China’s development and was aware of the country’s determination to progress further. He told the Chinese PM that the CP Group would invest further in China.

The CP patriarch also praised the “creative cooperation” between China and Thailand in many areas, including the development of innovations.

Also present during the meeting were China’s State Council secretary-general Wu Zhenglong, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Tang Renjian, and other senior Chinese officials.

The CP Group team included chairman Soopakij Chearavanont, senior vice chairman Yang Xiaoping, who is CEO of Chia Tai Group in China, and CP vice chairman Michael Ross.

Separately, Dhanin and his team also met with Yin Li, the Chinese Communist Party secretary of the Beijing Municipality.

Li praised the CP Group as a “very outstanding business organisation”, noting that CP was among the first foreign companies to invest in China after its opening to outside investments in the late 1970s.

He expected CP to increase its investment in Beijing and praised its cooperation with Chinese agencies as a “bridge of friendship” between China and Thailand.
 

Dhanin voiced his confidence in the future of Beijing and promised more investment from CP in the Chinese capital city, including the construction of an international innovation centre for science and technology and a research and development centre on comprehensive agriculture.

During their trip to Beijing early this week, Dhanin and Soopakij also met with Zhu Hexin, chairman of China’s CITIC Group, at the state-owned company’s head office.

Zhu called CP an “important partner” of the CITIC Group and confirmed his company’s commitment to continue “close cooperation with the Thai conglomerate.

Dhanin said that the CP Group would continue to improve the format of its investment in China for mutual benefit to both countries and the organisations involved.

The CITIC Group, formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation, is China’s state-owned investment company.