Syrian Prime Minister Meets Li Shufu In The Hope Of Cooperation

On the morning of July 1 Syria Time, Muhammad Naji al-Otari, the Prime Minster of Syria met the chairman of Geely Group from China and its delegates, who were making a market visit then in Syria, and had a close exchange and conversation on further cooperation, joint expansion of geely Autos in Syrian and the Middle East markets. Chinese Ambassador to Syria Li Huaxin, geely’s distributors in Syria and Syrian officials were also present at the meeting.
The Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari firstly expressed his welcome to the visit of Chairman Li Shufu and his delegation to Syria. He said, “China and Syria have maintained a long standing friendship, we are proud of it, we hope the relationship could go further favorably and achieve greater improvement in all aspects. We are looking forward to further strengthened communication and cooperation between Syria and geely, and we encourage enterprises and products with strategies such as geely to settle down in Syria. Syria hopes that geely could move some of its products to Syria for localization production. It would be mutually beneficial if geely can set up a technical and production center here, which will also play an active role in promoting economic development of both countries.”
The Prime Minister pointed out that Syria has adequate human resources and many good policies for foreign investment. its geographical position allows for further extension to neighboring countries and regions. He hoped that geely could operate the plant established in Syria as a principal manufacturing plant in the Middle East.
Li Shufu appreciated the meeting with the Prime Minister and Syrian government's support for geely’s development in Syria, he said: “The issues the Prime Minster just expressed are also our concerns. geely will continue to study Syrian and surrounding markets, and the trading policies of Syria and neighboring countries. GEELY is the largest private-owned automobile manufacturer in China and has formed a completely-equipped, advanced and scientific automobile manufacturing system from vehicle R&D to production. Furthermore, GEELY is open to the world's cooperation. It has many different cooperative modes and projects with developed countries and has established good cooperation with some main research institutes and major components manufacturers in the world. The purpose is to drive GEELY’s hi-tech development and strengthen its technological competitive power, thus improving the products competitiveness. GEELY was here seven years ago, thanks to the care and support from Syrian, it has achieved good development today and has obtained its people's recognition. Our sales here are good. At present, the automobiles of GEELY are distributed to 40 more countries for sale in the world. A brand-new Chinese automobile image of GEELY Autos is now spreading out before the world”. 
When it comes to the automobile new energy technology, the Prime Minister said that at present, Syria is seeking for an economical and environmental friendly automobile; he hoped that such automobile could be released in GEELY markets as soon as possible.
Li Shufu said that GEELY was also competitive in the field of new energy technology and products. GEELY would arrange and release such products to meet the market demands here. He added that GEELY would also carefully study the suggestion of plant setup in Syria and earnestly treat the markets of Syria with opportunities; for automobiles as required by Syria, GEELY would consider the issue properly. He said that GEELY’s mission is to build the safest, most energy-saving and environmental friendly vehicles and allow GEELY cars to run around the world. GEELY would like to share this vision with Syrian people.
For the issue of how to cope with current financial crisis together, the Prime Minster pointed out, “this financial crisis has brought great impact to American and European markets, but in my opinion China benefits from this crisis. With this opportunity, China can make overseas investment to become a leader in global economy.”
“The crisis gives us plenty of thinks, we have studied many new strategies including Syria's to adapt to automobile markets after the crisis”, the Chairman Li Shufu said, “Superficially, the crisis brought about many problems and difficulties to the world, and impact to the automobile industry, however we believe it could be an opportunity as well, a better and greater opportunity for automobile industry in China and Syria.”
Li Shufu kindly invited the Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari to drop by GEELY at his next visit to China and the Prime Minister happily accepted the invitation.
They also had a deep conversation and exchange over the matters of common concern.
According to the briefing, in order to cite GEELY’s outstanding performance in Syrian, Yaroub Bader, the Minister of Communications of Syria granted to GEELY the certificate of “The Best China Auto Brand in Syria" in person on June 29.