Reported by Zhang Li – The Second Roundtable Conference on China-Africa Cooperation started on November 10 in the city of Wanning in Hainan Province. A keynote speech at the conference was delivered by Mr. Zheng Gang, invited as a special guest by the committee of the conference, on behalf of the Chinese enterprises in Africa.

Mr. Zheng Gang, the Chairman of Hasan International, emphasized in his speech that: “At the moment, Hasan Group has already employed over 3,000 Nanchong citizens who work in Angola and Ghana. The average annual income of them reaches over RMB 100,000. Some of them have already started their own businesses and become successful entrepreneurs.” By virtue of its powerful software and hardware capabilities as well as its outstanding investment management models, Hasan International has successfully integrated and utilized the abundant social and market resources locally since they entered the African market in 2005. The company has already invested up to US$ 2 billion in the business development projects in Angola, Ghana, Namibia and other African countries. Hasan International also successfully promoted some of major Chinese financial institutions in Africa which have provided international loans of nearly 6 billion US dollars to the African countries such as Angola and Ghana.

Meanwhile, with years of exploration and operation in Africa, Hasan International has developed an innovative business development model, which has been recognized by many Chinese enterprises, to achieve the efficient integration of the local resources in Africa and the manufacturing resources and advanced technologies in China. Hasan International also effectively introduced lots of domestic enterprises in China to enter the African market since then. More than 20 enterprises in China, including the China Gezhouba (Group) Corporation, Sichuan Huashi Group, Zhengzhou Yutong, Chongqing Bosai, and Dazhou Steel Group, have formed strategic or equity partnership with Hasan International to explore the business development opportunities in Africa.

While growing continuously and noticeably during the past few years, Hasan International has also successfully enhanced the international visibility of Nanchong city and plays a positive role in promoting the economic development in Nanchong. Mr. Ji Peiding, the former Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chairman of the Association of Former Diplomats of China (AFDC), stated during his speech that while Hasan International is growing fast and making better profits in Angola, it’s also paying lots of attention to its corporate image. Mr. Ji also emphasized that Hasan International truly cares about the livelihood of the local people in Angola and has made lots of efforts to improve their welfare. Its valuable experience in working with the local people will be beneficial to other Chinese enterprises while developing their business relationship in Africa.

Founded on November 10th, 2010, the Roundtable Conference on China-Africa Cooperation held its first session in Beijing. The annual conference was aimed at promoting the implementation of the follow-up actions of the triennial Ministerial Conference on China-Africa Cooperation. Being focused on “Friendship, Cooperation, Development and Win-win Strategy”, the participants discussed variety of issues including the opportunities and challenges, economic and trade cooperation between China and the African countries, cooperation orientation and thinking, enhancing the China-African friendship through the public diplomacy and interactions among enterprises, expanding the scale of economy and trading, etc. It is reported that over 400 of China’s and Africa’s former statesmen, former diplomats, entrepreneurs and scholars, as well as over 40 African ambassadors to China, attended the Second Roundtable Conference on China-Africa Cooperation.