Refrigerator manufacturing plant of Haier at Pakistan Haier-Ruba Economic Zone in Lahore, Pakistan.
BEIJING, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- In Lahore of Pakistan, Haier-Ruba Economic Zone has become a household name.
The economic zone, established in 2006, is a joint-venture invested by Haier Group and Ruba Group, enlarged from Haier's industrial park in Pakistan. It is the first overseas economic cooperation zone built by Chinese companies.
The Haier-Ruba economic zone covers 330,000 square meters hosting 20 technicians from China and 3,800 local employees. The economic zone consists of 10 buildings, including plants, dormitories and warehouses. Many of the local employees are raising their whole family on the job.
Built on Haier's foundation of production, sales and logistics in Pakistan and the favorable policies under China and Pakistan's cooperation in various areas, the economic zone has become an important platform for Chinese companies to enter the markets in Pakistan and Southeast Asia.
Long Binbin, sales managers of Haier in Lahore, said that Haier arrived in Pakistan with low brand recognition, but in the following 15 years, Haier promoted localization innovation and tried the best to meet needs of Pakistani consumers, which has made it one of the most popular appliance brands in the country.
As the temperature can get up over 50 degrees in the summer in many places of Pakistan, the demand for ice and cold drink is very large. To meet the demand, Haier developed high-powered refrigerators and freezers that are able to quickly refrigerate and the products are widely praised by Pakistan's consumers.
Considering that local people like to use blankets and wear Shalwar Kameez, local housewives need to clean big clothes. Haier enlarged capacity of its washing machines for Pakistan's customers. In addition, to deal with problem of voltage instability and frequent power outage, Haier added the function of "automatic start" to restart the washing machine automatically after power supply recovery.
Now, Haier has become Pakistan's second largest home appliance brand and the largest foreign home appliance brand. Haierproduces and sells refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, household air-conditioners, televisions, microwave ovens in Pakistan. It has the largest share in washing machine and household air-conditioning markets. Its share in refrigerator market is the second largest in Pakistan.
It is estimated that Pakistan's home appliance market value is about 3 billion U.S. dollars, and Haier takes up 32 percent of the whole market.
In the eyes of Pakistan's customers, Haier is not only a cost-effective home appliance provider, but also a practitioner of promoting friendship between China and Pakistan.
After the earthquake hit Pakistan in 2015, Haier provided food and built shelters for local people who lost homes. In 2010, Haier donated 150,000 U.S. dollars when the country suffered floods. Moreover, In addition, Haier runs a social organization in Pakistan, providing long-term humanitarian support for Pakistan's hospitals.
With China's Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan going forward, Haier is trying to become a model of Chinese enterprises going abroad. In the future, more and more Chinese enterprises like Haier are expected to go overseas to bring high-quality products to Pakistan and build up fine image of Chinese companies at the same time.
According to Javed Afridi, CEO of Haier Pakistan said that Ruba Group has signed cooperation agreements with 11 Chinese companies. "China-Pakistan economic corridor is a gold mine," he said, "only if the two sides continue to enhance mutual understanding can they achieve maximum success."
(By Yang Qi, Liu Yang, Liu Lili, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)
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