P&G to invest $100m in Guangzhou Development District

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced on Sept 5 that it will invest $100 million in its China Digital Innovation Center project in Guangzhou Development District (GDD).

The project will help P&G integrate its digital technology research and innovation in fields such as big data and digitalized supply chain to accelerate the transformation of its business model.

P&G is one of the world's largest consumer goods manufactures and has been one of the key foreign-funded corporations in GDD and Guangzhou.

The subsidiary company P&G Guangzhou was founded in 1988 and that was P&G's first investment in China. The company's business volume reached 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in 2016.

Early in March 2017 at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017, Matthew Price, chairman of the board of P&G Greater China met with Ren Xuefeng, Party chief of Guangzhou and discussed the plan to establish a digital innovation center in Guangzhou. In August this year, Zhou Yawei, director of GDD party working committee led an investment promotion delegation to the headquarters of P&G in the US and finally lead to the settlement of the project.

The signing ceremony between GDD and P&G on the China Digital Innovation Center is held on Sept 5. [Photo/cri.cn]

GDD is pushing ahead with IAB initiative, which focuses on developing industries of new generation such as information technology, artificial intelligence and biological medicine and we will offer great support to companies settling in GDD or expanding their businesses here, said Zhou.

The e-commerce industry in China is booming and P&G has chosen this perfect time to build China Digital Innovation Center, an extremely wise move, added Zhou.

In 2014, China became P&G's largest e-commerce market after the company made its first forays into the country's e-commerce market in 2009.

The new digital innovation center is expected to help the company seize the opportunity from the rapid development of the internet and strengthen its offline sales.

The center will be devoted to digital marketing, big data analysis, artificial intelligence research, smart supply chain development and innovative technology supplier incubation.

GDD is one of the first batch of 14 national class economic and technological development zones established under the approval from the State Council. The district is currently home to more than 6,000 companies, with 145 companies from the world's top 500 enterprises. During the first half year of 2017, both the gross value of industrial output and growth rate of tertiary industry increased and ranked first in Guangzhou.