BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, a leading dairy company in China, is steadily pushing forward its overseas layout plan, striving for being a model of international operation under the backdrop of Belt and Road construction.
The Belt and Road Initiative is a development pathway that accommodates the needs of the times, said Zhang Yipeng, vice president of Yili Group, when attending the inaugural meeting of the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP) in Beijing on Thursday.
Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, Yili Group has actively participated in the Belt and Road construction and made a lot of achievements.
From China to the world
By collecting high-quality resources and creating quality benchmarks, Yili Group has made substantial progress in carrying out its internationalization strategy, striving to become the backbone in the Belt and Road construction and provide the world dairy industry with Chinese wisdom, according to the company's vice president.
In Europe, Yili had cooperated with Wageningen University & Research of the Netherlands in March 2014 to create Yili European Research and Development Center. Based on the center, the two sides had jointly built the first food safety guarantee system between China and the Netherlands, and carried out a series of cooperation on the improvement of dairy product quality.
With the further deepening cooperation of the two sides in innovation, research and development, talent exchange and resource sharing, Yili European Research and Development Center had been upgraded to European Innovation Center in September 2018.
In Oceania, Yili Group established a production base in Canterbury of New Zealand in 2014, with a total investment of 3 billion yuan. And in March 2019, Yili Group announced the acquisition of Westland, a New Zealand dairy company, with 100 percent stake.
Photo: Yili Group's production base in Oceania
In Southeast Asia, Yili Group had released 11 kinds of Joyday ice creams in October 2018 in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. And in November 2018, Yili Group had acquired Chomthana, the largest ice cream company in Thailand.
Benefit China and the world
While expanding overseas business, Yili Group also promotes the economic and community development in local areas.
At Yili's production base in New Zealand, the employees at all levels are almost hired locally. By doing this, Yili not only ensures the internationalization of the Group's management, but also meets the demand of local employment.
By training and arranging employees in New Zealand to visit its headquarters in China, Yili Group has enhanced mutual understanding between employees in China and New Zealand.
Besides, Yili Group has also established scholarship in local middle school, encouraging students to participate in dairy study and Sino-New Zealand exchanges and communication. (Edited by Tong Wei, tongwei@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
