On August 23rd Zhang Shuofu, Party Chief of the CPC Guangzhou Committee, Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou, and senior officials from both the Guangzhou and Meizhou municipal governments visited Wanglaoji’s Meizhou industrial park, aiming to gain insight into the project’s progress.

Li Chuyuan, Chairman of GPHL, made a report on the progress of the Meizhou industrial park, a project underwritten by Wanglaoji Health Industry Company Limited to extract ingredients used in herbal tea production and help improve the development of the local area. He also briefed the officials on GPHL’s development and its achievements in poverty relief.

Zhang Shuofu said Guangzhou is attaching great importance to poverty relief in line with the central government’s instruction, and supporting different regions in having their own development models based on local conditions.

Wen Guohui stressed that the city will target the specific demands from different villages and improve the effectiveness of poverty relief strategies as the next step. The city will also encourage more related projects.  

According to GPHL, Caizhilin, a GPHL subsidiary, has purchased more than 6,000 tons of herbs valued at over 60 million yuan from Meizhou this year. It’s expected that the total purchase amount will reach 150 million yuan in 2018, which will encourage local herb plantation, guarantee local farmers’ incomes and promote the development of a TCM industrial chain in the region.

Wu Changhai, deputy general manager of GPHL’s Baiyunshan and Zheng Rongbo, deputy general manager of Wanglaoji also joined the site visit.

Li Chuyuan reports GPHL’s achievements in poverty relief.

Wanglaoji herb crops in Meizhou

GPHL’s poverty relief model

GPHL has made profound achievements in targeting poor villages’ needs and promoting the development of local industries. Thus far, it has helped more than 281 residents out of poverty in three Guangdong villages.

In addition, GPHL invested about 400 million yuan to build the Wanglaoji Meizhou industrial park. Once put into use, it will be the world’s biggest facility of its kind. With advanced technology and automated equipment, it will extract more than 60-tonnes of herbs per day and have an output scale worth about 650 million yuan. The park is expected to create about 400 jobs.

In 2018, Wanglaoji’s project to construct a green design platform for herbal drinks, was selected as one of the national green manufacturing projects by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. An indicator that GPHL’s manufacturing project will reach the national standards for green manufacturing.

A rendering of Wanglaoji’s Meizhou Industrial Park

Reported by Jasmine Yin, Rebecca Tao

Edited by Olivia Ouyang, Simon Haywood