Jean Louis Beffa, president of France“s Saint-Gobain, met the Chinese prime minister, Li Peng, in Beijing on 8 July this year. The premier said there was good momentum for Sino-French cooperation in …
Jean Louis Beffa, president of France“s Saint-Gobain, met the Chinese prime minister, Li Peng, in Beijing on 8 July this year. The premier said there was good momentum for Sino-French cooperation in the economic and technological fields and expressed hopes that cooperation between Saint-Gobain and China can be continuously developed. Mr. Li noted that construction, one of China“s mainstay industries, has a huge and increasing market due to the development of the nation“s economy and the improvement of living standards. Mr. Beffa said development of the Chinese economy provides Saint-Gobain with favourable conditions for investment; his group has set up and continues to set up operations in a number of Chinese provinces. By 1998, there will be 7 joint-ventures and 4 wholly-funded enterprises in operation. Projects include a float glass plant, three automotive glass plants, two glass wool factories, a non-alkali fibre glass factory, a zircon-corundum refractory factory, an investment company and representative offices. Approval for the float glass project has already been obtained from the China State Economic Trade Commission, and construction of the plant is under way. The project, Donghai Saint-Gobain Co. Ltd., is a joint-venture between Saint-Gobain and China“s Donghai Glass Factory. The US$ 99.8 million facility is sited in Lianyungang (Jiangsu province) and will have a capacity of 500 tons/day. Production is due to start in 1998. Saint-Gobain set up its first joint-venture in China in 1990, since when it has invested a total of US$ 380 million in the country. The group plans further investment with both solely owned operations and joint ventures. To consolidate the operation of its Chinese projects, a holding company, Saint-Gobain (China) Investment Co. Ltd., was set up in March this year, with the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.