A leading Chinese tractor manufacturing firm is mulling over setting up four production units overseas, and Pakistan can be one of the choice countries for its investment because of increasing demand of its farmers to adopt mechanised farming.
The Chinese firm, Foton Lovol International, manufactures heavy machinery like tractors, harvesters, loaders and excavators. It is located in Weifing city, which is situated in one of the most developed provinces--Shandong--in the east of China. It produces one tractor every five minutes, and rolls out 200 machines in a month, vice secretary of the party committee Yang Hongyi said in an informal talk to a group of Pakistani journalists during their visit to the plant.
A group of Pakistani journalists is visiting China as the two countries are celebrating 60th year of establishment of their diplomatic relations which have stood the test of time and are set to expand their multi-faceted co-operation in years ahead.
Foton is already exporting its quality products to 112 countries, including America, European Union and Pakistan. It started exporting its machinery to Pakistan in 2005 and has been selling one thousand units per year, said Hongyi. He said the firm is very keen to expand its exports to Pakistan which would further cement relations between the two countries.
Another official said that the price of one tractor ranges from $ 19,000 to $ 18,000.
He said that of the 10,000 workforce, many thousand were women--an indication that over 50 percent of Chinese female population are equally contributing to the amazing pace of development of China.
China had surprised many in the West over the way its economy absorbed the shocks of the 2008 recession in the leading economies of the world by maintaining a double digit gross domestic product.
The tractor firm has won top ranking in sales of its products in the Chinese market for the last eight consecutive years and "its percentage of market share exceeds 70 percent".