Chairman Wang Jianlin Invited As Honorary Chairman of Liaoning Merchants Association Sharing Opinions at Inaugural Meeting

Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda Group, was appointed as the honorary chairman of Liaoning Merchants Association, and he shared three pieces of opinions at the inaugural meeting in 31st of August, 2018.

Distinguished Chairman Gao Yunlong, Secretary-General Xu Lejiang and Chen Qiufa, Governor Tang Yijun, dear guests,

It is my great pleasure to be here for the Inaugural Meeting of Liaoning Merchants Association. I wish the Inaugural Meeting a great success, and extend my warm congratulations on the newly-established Liaoning Merchants Association. In the meantime, I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to Liaoning Province for appointing me as the honorary chairman. I’ll try my best to make more contributions to Liaoning’s economic development.

Founded in 1988 and based in Dalian, Wanda Group has now become a famous private enterprise in China with certain international influence after 30 years of development. In 2017, its assets amounted to 700 billion yuan with revenue of 227.3 billion yuan. Wanda cannot grow so fast without the support from Liaoning Province, thus Wanda has always spared no efforts to boost Liaoning’s development. So far, Wanda has made investments in 13 cities in Liaoning except Huludao City, including 23 Wanda Plazas, 5 five-star hotels and some other projects, with a total investment of over 100 billion yuan and accumulated taxes of over 10 billion yuan, creating over 50,000 service jobs. Wanda has now become one of the enterprises with the most investments in Liaoning, and will continue to expand its investment there.

On this occasion, I’d like to share three pieces of opinions with you:

First, Liaoning should cultivate leading private enterprises. Leading private enterprises can extensively drive the upstream and downstream enterprises, thus forming industry clusters with significant impacts on regional economy. According to the latest data about Top 500 Private Enterprises in China in 2018, there are 93 in Zhejiang Province, and 15 in Hubei Province that has similar population with Liaoning Province, while there are only 6 in Liaoning. Among private enterprises with the annual revenue of over 50 billion yuan, there are 19 in Zhenjiang Province and 4 in Hubei Province, while only 2 in Liaoning. There are about 600,000 private enterprises in Liaoning, a number that can be comparable with those in developed provinces. However, there are few enterprises with large scale, especially leading ones with national influence. Thus, CPC Liaoning Provincial Party Committee and Liaoning Provincial People’s Government are suggested to give priority to the cultivation of leading private enterprises.

Second, Liaoning should vigorously support local enterprises. Many local governments are making great efforts to attract investments from other places, as they think foreign investments perform better than local’s. However, the historical experience proves that local enterprises are backbone for local economic development. The overall economy of Liaoning Province can be more dynamic only when local private enterprises develop well. Thus, governments at all levels in Liaoning are suggested to leverage more support to local private enterprises.

Third, Liaoning should build Liaoning Merchant’s brand. Liaoning merchants are main force for revitalizing the economy of Liaoning Province. Today’s Liaoning Merchants Association is a platform for all Liaoning Merchants to make joint efforts to build Liaoning Merchant’s brand and make Liaoning merchants a business group comparable with Zhejiang Merchants and Anhui Merchants.