Foton Partners with CADF and CAFIC to Deepen Investment Cooperation in Africa

Date:2018-09-10 Source:Foton

On September 6, the 4th Investing in Africa Forum themed by “Deepening Investment Cooperation and Harnessing Innovation for Sustainable Development and Shared Prosperity” was held in Hunan Province, China. The President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, the President of Sierra Leone Bio, the Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Hao Mingjin, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance Zou Jiayi, and the Vice President of the World Bank for Africa Hafez Ghanem attended the opening ceremony of this forum.

At the agreement signing ceremony of this forum, Foton Motor, CAFIC (the China-Africa Fund for Industrial Cooperation), and CADF (the China-Africa Development Fund) signed the Joint-Venture Agreement for Setup of China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd. The Vice President of Foton Motor Group, CEO of Foton International Chang Rui, the Vice President of CAFIC Wen Jiandong, and the Vice President of CADF Wang Yong signed the agreement on behalf of three parties, symbolizing the official establishment and operation of the China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd., one Foton Motor’s innovative investment project in Africa.

CADF and CAFIC are two state-level funds for investment in Africa and are playing a leadership role in terms of boosting the going-abroad of Chinese enterprises and supporting the “Three-Network and One-Industrialization” construction in Africa, the China-Africa international productivity cooperation, and going-abroad of equipment manufacturing industry.

Foton Motor is a leader in China’s commercial vehicle industry and also one of the world’s commercial vehicle manufacturers. Throughout 13-year overseas business development, at present Foton Motor has realized a global layout of 9 overseas sales companies, 22 KD plants, 7 spare parts warehouse centers, and more than 1,200 sales networks, with the sales and services covering more than 110 countries and regions in Asia Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central and South America.

the simultaneous investment of both state-level funds in Foton Motor’s overseas project sufficiently embodied the optimistic development prospect of Foton Motor overseas business. Three parties will sufficiently play the resource advantages, explore all-new business model, implement the investment and cooperation in Africa under the initiative of China’s “Belt and Road”, and by means of the complementary integration between finance and substantial economy and the integration between industry and finance, speed up the Foton’s layout in African market and boost the China-Africa cooperation and development.

China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd. will jointly invest approximately US$ 150 million to set up joint ventures or exclusively-funded ventures in multiple countries of Africa and implement localized production and manufacturing businesses. Meanwhile, the setup of China-Africa Auto Industrial Development Co., Ltd. is intended to provide capital support for the landed projects and speed up the construction and operation of local projects, including trading financing and commercial trading to boost the growth of Foton’s export business while promoting local tax revenue and employment. Compared with other investment projects of China’s auto manufacturers in Africa, China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd. works with the trading financing and commercial trading modes of China-Africa Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. to improve the capital utilization efficiency and reduce the investment risks.

Foton Motor has made a figure in the African market, at present Foton Motor’s products and services have covered 43 countries in Africa. Compared with the single export mode, Foton Motor pays more attention to the significant development of the market. In terms of the after-sales parts supply, Foton Motor has established and operated the regional distribution center (RDC) and national distribution center (NDC) respectively in Senegal and Kenya to sufficiently solve the users’ after-sales worries. In terms of the industry development, Foton is implementing the joint-venture cooperation by means of localized joint-venture cooperation with local partners in manufacturing plants. Following the comprehensive implementation of subsequent projects in Algeria, Nigeria, and Egypt, China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd. will work with full efforts to provide a solid backing for Foton Motor’s industrialization development in Africa.

China-Africa Foton Investment Co., Ltd. is a “Foton Solutions” with Foton Motor’s advantages of own technologies, lean manufacturing system, and production capacity in globalization development, and is also an innovative attempt in the China’s commercial vehicle industry. As one significant step of Foton Motor in the “Belt and Road” strategy, this project will boost the upgrade of industrial structure in African countries and regions, drive the growth of local economic development and people’s living standard, and forge a good image of “Created in China”. With the establishment of long-acting cooperation mechanism with local partners and by means of the more open and innovative localized industry investment and joint-venture cooperation mode, Foton Motor is developing towards the optimistic local industry construction and innovatively forging Foton Motor’s new momentum for implementing the “Road and Belt” 2.0.