China: Harbin Cigarette Factory to be Relocated in Technical Transformation

Source from:  Tobacco online china 03/04/2009

Harbin Cigarette Factory in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province - a century-old Chinese tobacco manufacturing enterprise - will be relocated to a new site in Harbin City in the implementation of a priority project of technical transformation designated by the municipal government of Harbin City. The project of technical transformation of Harbin Cigarette Factory is pending approval by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) - the regulator of China's tobacco industry. Once it is approved, work will be started to expropriate land, make designs, invite tenders, conduct preliminary designing, make assessment, submit formal applications, level the ground of the new site, etc. The project is expected to start by the end of 2009. On February 27, Sun Yonggang, chief of the Department of Engineering of Technical Transformation and deputy director of Harbin Cigarette Factory, said that the technical transformation of Harbin Cigarette Factory will have a total investment of 1.43 billion yuan (205 million U.S. dollars), and that an application has been submitted to the STMA for the approval of the project, which can be made in the near future. Recently, Harbin Cigarette Factory has completed initial preparations for implementing the project, including preparations for land survey and mapping, designing and tender invitation. It has invited three Class A designing institutes experienced in technological designing for the tobacco industry to conduct planning and designing for the project. A first-phase investment of 150 million yuan (21.4 million U.S. dollars) will be delivered by the end of 2009. It was reported that Harbin Cigarette Factory was founded in 1902. The factory's existing warehouse of finished products was built in 1927. As it has been listed as a building under government protection, this warehouse will not be demolished. What will happen to the existing site of Harbin Cigarette Factory is a matter yet to be decided by the government. Enditem