On the morning of December 18th, the foundation stone for the Guangzhou Production Base of the Guangdong Tobacco Industrial Co., Ltd was laid at the Dongsha Economic Development Zone, Fangcun Village, Liwan District.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong Province, Zhu Mingguo, member of the CPC Guangdong Committee and secretary of the Guangdong Commission for Discipline Inspection, You Ningfeng, deputy director of the Guangdong People's Congress, Dong Xing, vice governor of Guangdong, Jiang Chengkang, director general of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, Zhang Guangning, Mayor of Guangzhou, Gan Xin, Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou, and Ping Xinguang, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee.
To occupy an area of 1,047 mu (Chinese unit of area, 1/15 of a hectare) the core production base of Guangdong’s tobacco industry is a key project of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and of Guangzhou city.

Not only major tobacco brands of Guangdong province are to be manufactured at the site, but research and development work will be carried out as well. By the end of 2009, with an overall annual production capacity of 1.5 million boxes and annual revenuesup to RMB 10 billion, the facility will become the largest modern cigarette production centre in south China.

The previous 7 tobacco factories of Guangdong Province have been involved with a series of mergers. The Guangzhou No.2 Cigarette Factory, the Guangzhou No. 1 Cigarette Factory and the Nanhai Cigarette Factory were regrouped to become the new Guangzhou No.2 Cigarette Factory. This newly formed unit then merged with the other four cigarette factories into the Guangdong General Cigarette Factory, which again was incorporated into the Guangdong Tobacco Industrial Co., Ltd. For the next step an inter-provincial merger plan might be implemented, noted an insider of Guangdong tobacco industry.

(Translated by Guangzhou Association of Foreign Affairs Translators)

Source : english.gz.gov.cn