China: Shanghai Tobacco Group Lays Cornerstone for Building Innovation Park

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 12/07/2012

Shanghai Tobacco Group – a leading Chinese tobacco manufacturer based in east China's Shanghai City – held a grand ceremony on November 26 to lay a cornerstone to start the construction of its Pudong Scientific-Technological Innovation Park in northeastern Shanghai City, in efforts to significantly enhance its overall competitiveness.

At the ceremony, Deputy Director-General Li Keming of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) declared the official start of the construction of the park. Other dignitaries attending the ceremony included Zhang Baozhen, president of China Tobacco Workers Ideological and Political Work Research Council and China Tobacco Corporate Culture Development Society, Ai Baojun, member of the Standing Committee of Shanghai City Committee of the Communist Party of China and deputy mayor of Shanghai City, Hu Yanzhao, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of Shanghai City People's Congress, and Jiang Liang, vice chairman of Shanghai City Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the chief executive officer of the New Pudong District.

Officially registered in December 2011, the construction of the Pudong Scientific-Technological Innovation Park of Shanghai Tobacco Group is a priority investment project of China's tobacco industry in the 2011-2015 five-year period and also a priority project of Shanghai City.

The No. 1 plot of the project in which the cornerstone for the start of construction was laid measures more than 830 mu (more than 55.3 hectares) in area and involves a total investment of 5.89 billion yuan (935 million U.S. dollars), with the total construction area estimated at about 430,000 square meters. The plot will mainly be used for the construction of joint experimental and manufacturing workshops, a power center, a science and technology building, a scientific-technological research and development building, support production and scientific-technological research facilities and logistics facilities. The project is expected to be completed and go into operation by the end of 2017.

The project of construction of the Pudong Scientific-Technological Innovation Park of Shanghai Tobacco Group is intended for the development of a "high-end technology collection and distribution hub and high-end products incubator". In the execution of the project, intense efforts will be made to form an open and multipurpose scientific-technological innovation system and innovation platform with close combination between the manufacturing sector, academia and research circles, in order to provide powerful support for further promoting the development of competitive brands of the tobacco industry of Shanghai and enhancing the overall competitiveness of the tobacco manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai City.

At the ceremony, STMA Economic Operation Department Director Wang Ping and Shanghai City government's Deputy General Secretary Xiao Guiyu, respectively on behalf of the STMA, China National Tobacco Corporation and Shanghai City government, extended congratulations on the start of the project of construction of the Pudong Scientific-Technological Innovation Park. They required Shanghai Tobacco Group to build the Pudong Scientific-Technological Innovation Park into a tobacco scientific-technological innovation base that will be the first-rate in the world and that will meet the world's advanced levels, in accordance with the requirement for making planning at a high start point, making designing by high standards, making construction with high quality and making management at high levels, in order to make greater contribution to maintaining sustainable and steady economic development of Shanghai City.

Those attending the ceremony also included leaders of the relevant departments and units of the STMA and China National Tobacco Corporation, leaders of the relevant departments of Shanghai City and Pudong District governments, some delegates to the eighth corporate culture development on-site meeting of China' tobacco industry and also a meeting of secretary generals on policy research of the national tobacco industry held in Shanghai, representatives of staff members and workers of Shanghai Tobacco Group, and leaders of other relevant institutions. Enditem