JAC Gives Solution to Seize Opportunities of China-Africa Cooperation Warming-up

On September 27th, Embassy of China in the Republic of Ghana hosted a reception to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and introduced the significance and main achievements of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as the 'Summit'); on September 28, the UN For the first time, the Secretariat distributed the outcome document of the summit as an official document of the UN General Assembly. This move will further expand the impact of the summit and China-Africa cooperation will continue to heat up.

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 2018 Beijing Summit was held on Sep.3rd to 4th in Great Hall of the People around the theme of ‘China and Africa: toward an even stronger community with a shared future through win-win cooperation’. As stressed in the summit, in recent years, Chinese enterprises have accelerated its overseas layout, which has not only pushed forward the belt and road major projects, but also lay foundation of the entry of the developed countries.

As the representative of Chinese automobile enterprises, JAC has made breakthrough in the China-Africa cooperation. As one of the representatives in the automobile fields, JAC Vice-chief Economist Zhang Peng attended the commit and received the interview of CHINA AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, during which, Zhang shared JAC ‘going out’ experience and the future blueprint for China-Africa automobile cooperation.

The upcoming ten years is the ten years of Africa

Zhang Peng analyzed that Africa is the main area of the belt and road, which is a growing market.” The future Africa will be the youngest mainland”, as the development of the economy, the consumption potential will be released, “I am optimistic about African market, I believe that the upcoming ten years will be the ten years of Africa.”

Chinese automobile industry has its distinctive advantages in setting its footprint in Africa due to the high attention from the country level and the traditional friendship between China and Africa.

On one hand, China has large automobile industrial volume with exceptional manpower cost advantages; On the other hand, China can still provide the automobile products which can match African development phase.

From Zhang Peng’s point of view, In the future, China will provide financial assistance, low-interest loans and a large number of infrastructure projects in Africa, which will inevitably lead to the continuous introduction of Chinese commercial vehicles to Africa. With the development of the local economy, the people's living standards will be improved，which has provided Chinese passenger cars with great potential. In particular, the entry of new energy vehicles into Africa will allow Africa to share and learn from the achievements of the green development of China's auto industry.

“To gain long-term development, Chinese automobile should not only output the products, but also the technologies and management, which can drive the growth of African young people and enlarge the space between China and Africa.”Zhang Peng said.

JAC is popular in Africa for 20 years

JAC started to enter the African market from 1998 from the North Africa, it has explored the markets including Algeria, Egypt, Angola, Mozambique, and Kenya and so on, right now, it is focused on exploring the South Africa market.

Accordingly, JAC exporting volume has increased by 40% from Jan. to Aug. compared with last year, among which, more than 60% were exported to the belt and road countries, while Africa is one of the most important areas, taking Algeria as an example, JAC trucks ranked No.1 among all international brands, in Egypt, JAC demonstrated excellent performance in both commercial vehicles and passenger cars, besides, JAC has founded a passenger cars assembly plant.

JAC outstanding performance In Africa was contributed to its understanding about African people’s car using demands, such as in Africa, there are many adverse roads with terrible environmental situation, and it is lack of sound service networks. “So it requires that the vehicles should adapt to the high temperature and high humidity environment, and they should be reliable and affordable.” Zhang Peng said.

Especially these years, many African countries are devoted to developing their own automobile industry, so they have greatly increased tariffs, and the enterprises can enjoy the preferential tax policies as long as they establish plants in the local market. As to the changes in the market, JAC actively adjust its strategy.

Accordingly, right now, JAC has 19 assembly plants in the global market, among which, Algeria, Nigeria, Sudan and Egypt are in Africa. Zhang Peng said, JAC is always the first to response to the changes of local industry policies and security standards.

Moreover, JAC attached great attention to the cultivation of the local technical talents, for example, JAC held technical service month every year in Africa, and provided mobile service in the key markets; Sudan and Nigeria are lack of talents, JAC invested in training young workers for the local automobile industry.

Assist China-African automobile high quality development

In the future, JAC plans to form a pattern of “North Africa as the main piece with Eastern and Western Africa as the wings, and South Africa as the key developed market.” Focusing on the principles of “key markets, key customers, key products, and key breakthroughs”, we will first make a solid foundation in the single market as the point, and make points into a line, and then expand into a face. Using the advantages of regional integration, JAC has formed a network of marketing and services throughout Africa.

As to the key markets, key customers, key products, and key breakthroughs, Zhang Peng explained, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa are taken as the key markets, and the successful development of key markets will increase the radiating capacity; In the key products, JAC has competitive light commercial vehicles, and right now it also developed African version heavy-duty trucks and economic SUV which suits African road condition; Key customers will be the strength partners, such as fleet customers; and key breakthroughs must be step by step, and providing continuous service.

From JAC interview, CHINA AUTOMOTIVE NEWS can predict that in the future, Chinese automobiles will provide variable quality and green travelling for African and even the global customers. (www.chinatrucks.com)

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