RGE bets big opportunities on nation's economic prospects

Singapore firm expands investment, deepens long-term commitment to China

Paper production company Asia Symbol (Guangdong) Paper Co Ltd is bullish on China's economic prospects, betting big on the country's increasingly growing market.

"We are firmly optimistic about the development opportunities in China," said Steven Hung, managing director of Asia Symbol, a subsidiary under RGE Group (Royal Golden Eagle), a resource-based company with headquarters in Singapore.

Seeing rising growth opportunities in China's high-quality economic development, green transformation and continuous consumption improvement, Hung said the company will ramp up efforts to cater to Chinese consumers' rising needs for high-quality copy paper and high-value products such as tissue paper.

"There is still great untapped potential in the Chinese market," Hung added, saying he takes a rosy view of the growth momentum of China's ultra-large domestic market of 1.4 billion people.

Founded in 1967, RGE manages a group of resource-based manufacturing companies with global operations in countries including China, Indonesia, Spain, Brazil and Canada, covering business areas such as pulp and paper, palm oil, dissolving pulp and clean energy.

Hung said one of the group's more significant development strategies is to combine the world's most competitive and abundant natural resources with China's vast market.

"We entered the Chinese papermaking industry through joint ventures in the 1990s and have steadily expanded our investment scale in China," he said. "To date, the group has cumulatively invested over 90 billion yuan ($12.3 billion) in the country and employs nearly 10,000 people in the market. Currently, China is the group's largest market, accounting for nearly half of the group's total sales."

In June, RGE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province to invest 13.7 billion yuan over the next five years to expand its paper, clean energy and palm oil businesses in the province.

The new investments, which are all major existing businesses of RGE, include a new paper production line, a natural gas-fueled power plant, new liquefied natural gas capacity expansion and a new palm oil processing facility.

The group said the investments deepen RGE's long-term commitment in China and in particular in Guangdong, which is the core of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a vibrant economic region in South China. The investments will enable RGE to bring in new and highly advanced manufacturing capabilities, creating an influx of opportunities for employment and local businesses.

The group said its growing investments in Guangdong are driven by the many business opportunities China's largest provincial economy by GDP volume in 2022 has to offer, due to its immense economic potential, strategic location within the GBA and proximity to the markets.

So far, the group has invested 20 billion yuan in the paper, non-woven fabrics and LNG clean energy sectors in Jiangmen and Yangjiang in Guangdong.

Looking forward, Hung voiced strong optimism about China's economic prospects, saying the group will be dedicated to the China market in the long run.

Guo Guannan, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said the latest economic indicators point to a continued recovery trend, showcasing the strong resilience and great potential of China's economy.

China's GDP grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter after a 6.3 percent rise in the second quarter, posting a steady recovery despite downward pressure, said the National Bureau of Statistics.

In the first three quarters, China's GDP grew by 5.2 percent to 91.3 trillion yuan after a 5.5 percent growth in the first half, the bureau said.