Chinese Company, Dutch Agio Cigars Sign Technical Cooperation Pact

Source from:  beijing news 09/22/2008

Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation - the operator of the tobacco industries in southwest China's Sichuan Province and its neighboring Chongqing City - and Royal Agio Cigars Company of the Netherlands signed an agreement on technical cooperation between the two sides in Beijing on September 16. The agreement has been the first pact on technical cooperation in cigar production signed between a Chinese tobacco manufacturer and a foreign tobacco company, with the support of China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA). Signing the agreement were respectively General Manager Wu Yinglu of Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation and Commercial Director Boris Wintermans of Agio Cigars. The Great Wall Cigar Factory of Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation has a cigar production history of nearly 100 years, with its annual cigar output and sales, market shares and the size of raw material production bases all ranking the first in China. In its development plan for the 2006-2010 period, Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation specifically sets the targets of turning itself into China's No. 1 cigar production base, developing China's No. 1 cigar brand, and turning its cigar production operation into the corporation's new economic growth point. Founded in 1904 by Jacques Wintermans, Agio Cigars is one of the leading cigar manufacturers in Europe and also a famous cigar producer in the world. The company produces over 750 million cigars a year, distributed in more than 100 countries, and also cigar production equipment. In its endeavor to turn itself into China's No. 1 cigar production base and develop China's No. 1 cigar brand, Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation has been active in seeking foreign cooperation. Since September 2007, it had held many rounds of negotiations with Agio Cigars, before signing a memorandum on bilateral technical cooperation in Sichuan's provincial capital city of Chengdu in April 2008. The technical cooperation agreement signed in Beijing this time says that the two sides will, on the basis of the principles of long-term development, sincere cooperation, interaction to reach a win-win situation and common development, enter into cooperation in terms of production technology, raw material technology, brands development, marketing, technical training, technical transformation, etc, and establish long-term friendly cooperation partnership. At the signing ceremony, the STMA's deputy director-general Li Keming briefed Wintermans on reform and development of China's tobacco industry over the past few years, particularly focusing on cigar production and marketing in China. Li said that along with rapid socioeconomic development and rise of the level of consumption in China, the cigar market in China will have very great development potential and will become very hopefu. He noted that the STMA has already made planning for future development of cigar production in China, that cigar production will be a priority of development by China's tobacco industry, and that the STMA has designated Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation as China's first national-level cigar production base. Li said that the STMA will do all it can to support cooperation between Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation and Agio Cigars, expressing the belief that through concerted efforts by the two sides, cooperation between them will certainly result in great achievements. Speaking on the same occasion, Wintermans said he is fully confident in cooperation with Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation, expressing the belief that China's cigar market, particularly the high-end market, will turn better and better, and that the cooperation with Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation will certainly become successful. Enditem