14 businessinsight MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2013 CHINA DAILY Fighting Africa’s biggest epidemic

annua, or sweet wormwood plants Guangdong company spearheads e orts that are native to China. According to company oJ cials, to help prevent and eradicate killer disease Guangdong New South has exten- sive sweet wormwood plantations in By LI WENFANG in Guangzhou held company is engaged in manu- Fengshun county, Meizhou, Guang- [email protected] facturing traditional Chinese medi- dong province, along with extrac- cine, property development, hotel tion units. * e company has already Chinese medicines could well services, energy development and applied for patent protection in 57 prove to be the panacea for African ! nancial services. countries for its anti-malarial medi- nations in tackling malaria, a dis- Its business extends across more cines and is a registered supplier in ease that accounts for the greatest than 20 cities in the Chinese main- 14 African countries, Cambodia number of deaths on the continent. land along with overseas locations and Myanmar. While big donors such as the such as Singapore, Australia, Kenya Chen says that after extensive US-based Gates Foundation and and Nigeria. According to Chen, the clinical trials in the African island We have been British drugmaker company has oJ ces in 16 African nation of Comoros, the compa- stepping up our PHARMA GlaxoSmithKline are countries, with the largest presence ny perfected what is now called spearheading the ! ght being in Nigeria, with representative the “Fast Elimination of Malaria overseas marketing by spending huge amounts on long- oJ ces in Abuja, Lagos and Kano. through Source Eradication”. e' orts, actively term solutions such as preventive Chen says the company has also “We achieved remarkable results,” participating in vaccines, valuable support is also embarked on a brand-building ini- Chen says, adding that the trials being provided by Chinese drug tiative through public campaigns took place on the island of Moheli trade shows and ! rms with medicines that seek to and advertisements in buses and on in Comoros, where 23 percent of ‘‘ establishing o) ces stop the disease at the carrier stage. the radio. * e real eL orts will also the 36,000 residents were carriers in the malaria- Leading Chinese eL orts is Guang- focus on getting the company co- of plasmodium, the parasite respon- endemic areas of dong New South Artepharm Co, opted as an anti-malarial bulk drug sible for human malaria. which has taken a twin-pronged supplier for international organiza- All residents on Moheli took Africa, Southeast approach to fighting malaria in tions, governments and charitable the malaria medicine twice daily, Asia and South Africa. * e company, a unit of the groups, which account for 70 to 80 and in four months the percentage America. Guangzhou-based diversi! ed busi- percent of the global anti-malarial dropped to 0.33 percent, he says. ness enterprise Guangdong New medicine market. “* ree years a& er the trials, the plas- CHEN YUEJIN VICE-PRESIDENT, South Group Co, plans to tackle the Malaria is Africa’s deadliest dis- modium carriage rate fell to just 1 to GUANGDONG NEW SOUTH disease with its artemisinin-based ease, killing more than 600,000 2 percent.” GROUP PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY anti-malarial medicines and also people every year, mostly children. “We repeated the trials in Top: Guangdong New South Group promotes its anti-malaria medicine increase awareness about the dis- Billions of dollars are spent every Anjouan, another island with a in Nigeria. Above: Residents on the island of Moheli take the malaria ease on the ground with its spirited year to ! nd new ways to check the population of 310,000, last year global eL orts in tackling malaria. medicine twice daily. In four months the percentage of carriers dropped to public campaigns. spread of the disease in Africa. * e and succeeded in bringing the “Ninety percent of the 660,000 0.33 percent from 23 percent. “We have been stepping up our Chinese eL orts will no doubt prove plasmodium carriage rate down malaria deaths reported worldwide overseas marketing eL orts, actively valuable, experts say. from 19 percent to 0.5 percent,” last year occurred in Africa. The in free trade zones to attract more Investment operates the Nigeria participating in trade shows and Guangdong New South made its Chen says, adding that the process disease still kills one African child Chinese investors to Africa. Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone establishing oJ ces in the malaria- foray into anti-malarial medicine would be extended to other parts every minute,” says Luis Sambo, Guangdong New South has in Ogun, Nigeria. * ezone covers endemic areas of Africa, Southeast in 2006 by teaming up with the of Comoros soon. the regional director for the World through its fully owned unit in an area of 100 square kilometers and Asia and South America,” says Chen Guangzhou University of Chinese Guangdong New South delivered Health Organization in Africa. Lagos acquired a 51 percent stake in houses more than 30 enterprises. Yuejin, vice-president of Guang- Medicine. * e company decided to 24 million yuan ($3.94 million) of Chen from Guangdong New China-Africa Investment Co from “The zone will be attractive for dong New South Group. market Artemisinin, an anti-malar- anti-malarial medicine in June to the South says that apart from marketing State-owned Guangdong Xinguang Chinese companies that are plan- Founded in 1994, the privately ial drug extracted from artemisia Ministry of Health to support China’s eL orts, the company is also investing International Group. China-Africa ning expansion in Africa,” says Chen.

FACTBOX

Liangjiang means “two rivers” in New business link forged from historic bond Chinese and refers to the Yang- tze River and Jialing River that converge at Chongqing at the By ZHENG YANGPENG diligent and eJ cient. head of the Yuzhong peninsula, in Chongqing However, it isn’t all smooth going. the heart of the city. [email protected] When Hankook decided to open In June 2010, the State Council the factory in Chongqing, China’s approved a 1,200 square In Nov 1945, when Kim Gu, pres- GDP growth was still above 10 per- kilometer area across from the ident of the provisional government cent. This year it has dropped to north bank of the peninsula as of the Republic of Korea, ! nished less than 8 percent and tire sales Liangjiang New Area, a pilot six years of exile in Chongqing and are currently lower than expected. zone to test new policies, intro- duce foreign investment and le& for home, he expressed his grati- China’s labor costs have also risen drive future growth. tude to the Chinese government in signi! cantly since the factory was an open letter for its built, which forced the company to The district is the third state-lev- INDUSTRY “generous” ! nancial increase investment in automatic el development area approved support, especially equipment. directly by the State Council after Shanghai’s Pudong New when China itself was also experi- Xing Jun, a team leader of Chongq- Area and the Binhai New Area encing extreme hardship. ing Yuhan Lithium Ion Battery Mate- in Tianjin. * at wartime friendship has not rials Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary been forgotten by South Koreans, in of SK Group, also says the key reason Liangjiang has been set fi ve that many still choose to pay a visit for his company investing $100 mil- major missions: a pilot area for comprehensive urban-rural to the site of their exiled govern- lion in the Sino-Korean Industrial reform in the hope of narrow- ment when they visit China. Park is the potentially huge market ing the gap between urban and Now, as Chongqing, the largest of the western region. rural areas; an inland base for city in China by population, opens That belief persuaded him and advanced manufacturing and itself to the world in pursuit of eco- SK Group heads to persist even in modern services; a regional nomic progress, memories of those 2012, when the fallout of former fi nancial and innovation center; an important door for opening- dark days are frequently cited as an JI JIN / CHINA DAILY city chief Bo Xilai’s corruption case up inland China; a window for important emotional link between Hankook Tire Group has invested $954 million in the Sino-Korean Industrial Park in Chongqing Liangjiang New was at its worst and unnerved many scientifi c development. the two East Asian countries, which Area. The company now has a production capacity of 2,400 truck tires a day and is expected to produce another investors. have a tradition of building business 16,000 car tires a day in early 2015. “What we care about is not the According to a 2012 devel- ties on personal relationships. ups and downs of a single person, opment report, Liangjiang achieved annual GDP growth South Koreans are not only guid- envying the prosperity of once less- It is also the starting point of a Completed this June, the first but the fundamentals of Chongqing, of 20.4 percent, outpacing the ed by old alliances, but are also lured er-known cities, such as Shenzhen strategic inter-continental railway phase of the project has a produc- and the fundamentals of Chongqing 20.1 percent recorded in Binhai, by the exciting business opportu- and Suzhou, brought about by their line, crossing north through the tion capacity of 2,400 truck tires remain intact,” Xing says. and Pudong’s 10.4 percent, and nities in western China, which is proximity to the international mar- Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a day. When the second phase is His company will start produc- far outstripping the national still relatively underdeveloped ket. Now, ! nally, it is Chongqing’s Kazakhstan and Russia to Duisburg ! nished in early 2015, the company tion in the ! rst quarter of 2014 pro- average of 7.8 percent. In the compared with the eastern coastal time. in Germany. A& er the route opened, expects to produce another 16,000 ducing 2,400 metric tons of battery fi rst half of this year, industrial output in the new area surged region. In the past decade, the “go west” Chongqing suddenly found itself at car tires a day. materials a year. SK Group is also in 35.1 percent year-on-year to hit In September 2011, the two gov- campaign launched by the central the forefront of opening-up to the Hao says the fact the investment a joint venture building a chemical 159.5 billion yuan ($26 billion), ernments signed an agreement to government changed the land- European market. was made before there was a whole- plant and semiconductor plant in well above the city’s average launch the Sino-Korean Industrial scape of the less-developed western “We do not regard ourselves as an car production factory in the city suburban Chongqing. growth. Park in Chongqing Liangjiang (Two provinces — highways, railways, inland city. We consider Chongq- underlines Hankook’s eagerness According to Chongqing govern- yanbian Electronic information, automo- Rivers) New Area, the third national bridges and airports have been built ing as a (along the border) to access the market. Although ment data, by the end of last year, biles, high-end manufacturing, development area approved directly on a massive scale; GDP growth city,” says Hao Ming, deputy direc- Chongqing is an auto parts and 107 South Korean enterprises had aviation and biomedicines have by the State Council a& er Shanghai’s has been faster than their eastern tor-general of the administrative motorcycle manufacturing hub, less registered in the municipality with been identifi ed as the region’s Pudong New Area and the Binhai counterparts for the past six years; committee of Liangjiang New Area, than 30 percent of Hankook’s tires an implemented investment of fi ve pillar industries. Finance, New Area in Tianjin. It is also the and people’s incomes have grown which houses the Sino-Korean are sold in western China. $316 million. Fortune Global 500 conferences, bonded zone and third industrial park jointly built considerably. Industrial Park. Because most of Hankook’s prod- companies such as Hyundai Motor logistics are designed to be the four core functional areas for with a foreign country, a& er ones Chongqing has more reasons “Foreign companies do not ucts are either transported by trucks Company and Pohang Iron and Liangjiang. in Suzhou and Tianjin, both in col- to be optimistic. In 2010, a 1,200 regard the western area only as a or ships to other markets, sound Steel Co Ltd are negotiating with laboration with the Singapore gov- square kilometer area across from production base. Rather, they deem infrastructure was another reason the Chongqing government over The region needs to attract ernment. * is gave South Korea a the north bank of the city’s central it as the gateway to a 300-million why Hankook settled on Chongq- major deals. about 100,000 highly skilled foothold in a strategically important Yuzhong peninsula was pinpointed population market.” ing, Chang says. Closer business ties have also workers to sustain its develop- ment. Some 400,000 jobs will growth engine in China. as a “New Area”, a national-level Hao’s views are shared by many The Chongqing plant is Han- resulted in increased demand for be on o er by 2015, according “In the 1980s, watch Shenzhen; pilot zone to test new policies, intro- Korean businessmen working in kook’s third in China, a& er Huai’an travel with the number of direct to Liangjiang’s administration. in the 1990s, watch Pudong; in the duce foreign investment and drive Chongqing, attracted by what they in Jiangsu province and Jiaxing in flights between Chongqing and Chongqing is home to 8 million 2000s, watch Binhai; in this new future growth. see as a huge and largely untapped Zhejiang. Chang has overseen both Seoul increasing from two to four migrant workers, half of them decade, watch Liangjiang.” The As China opens up more, expand- market. these factories for more than 10 a week. working in coastal cities. The catchphrase repeatedly propounded ing from the east coast to areas “It is de! nitely the center of the years. He says Chongqing’s elec- However, oJ cials of the Liangji- local government is using every means to bring them back, here, crystallizes a feeling of pride along major rivers and borders, western region,” says Chang Maeng- tricity and gas prices are 30 per- ang New Area say attracting for- including the construction of and expectation that, for too long, Chongqing is well positioned as the Keun, factory director and vice- cent cheaper than for the eastern eign investment was not its main a ordable housing projects and the inland mega city, a temporary largest city on the upper stretch of president of Hankook Tire Group, plants. He claims that although the focus. They are more concerned the provision of free training capital during World War II, had the Yangtze River, China’s golden which is investing $954 million in company pays the same wages for with fostering industry conglom- programs. been resting on former glories and waterway. the Sino-Korean Industrial Park. Chongqing workers, they are more eration.