Investment advisers boost confidence

As a newly-appointed investment adviser for Guangdong province, Nicolas Poirot, president and CEO of Air Liquide (China) Holding, said he believed an optimized investment environment in Guangdong had helped to boost the company's confidence in business expansion in the province.

"The economic development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has attracted us to continuously expand investment in energy conversion, hydrogen energy, electronics, medical care and other innovative technologies," he said.

Poirot was one of 16 advisers newly appointed by Guangdong authorities for global investment during the 2022 Global Investment Promotion Conference for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which was held on Wednesday in Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital.

The appointment followed the first batch of 22 global investment advisers, who were selected from domestic and foreign economic and industrial and commercial circles last year.

The advisers will be responsible for promotion of the investment and business environment in Guangdong, helping attract more global high-end talent and projects to invest and develop in the province.

"We will continue to benefit from the infrastructure development and great positioning of Guangdong, and most importantly, the province's new focus on high-tech manufacturing and semiconductors, and expansion of the petrochemical and health care industries," he said.

As a French-headquartered Fortune Global 500 company, Air Liquide, a global industrial and medical gas supplier, plans to invest in both the semiconductor industry in Shenzhen and petrochemicals in the coastal area of Guangdong.

"The GBA is very promising for hydrogen and green hydrogen as one of the means to develop future mobility, cleaner mobility in Guangdong," he said. Currently, hydrogen can be used for heavy and commercial vehicles, trucks and smaller trucks entering cities in Guangdong.

After establishment of its first industrial gas plant in Shenzhen in 2009, Air Liquide has set up its footprints in various cities including Qingyuan, Dongguan and Maoming.

"With our rich experience in supplying gas to large petrochemical bases around the world, we hope to play an important role in the energy transformation and development of strategic emerging industries in the Greater Bay Area," he said.

As a Japan-based auto parts supplier, Yazaki will strengthen cooperation with Guangdong authorities in the new energy vehicle industry, according to Murata Hideaki, president of Yazaki (China) Investment Corporation.

"Development of new energy vehicles in China, especially in Guangdong, which has a very favorable investment environment and a very large development space for foreign businesses, has been rapid in recent years," he said.

During a signing ceremony for major projects held on Wednesday, Yazaki concluded a cooperation agreement for construction of a new energy auto parts manufacturing base in Shantou, in the eastern coastal area of Guangdong.

On Wednesday, a total of 853 cooperation projects worth of 2.5 trillion yuan ($357 billion) were signed during the 2022 Global Investment Promotion Conference for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Projects ranged from advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, new generation information technology and food to health care, reflecting domestic and overseas investors' confidence for development of the Greater Bay Area.