China Merchants Group Chairman pledges to invest more in CICT, HIP
The highest ranking official from the China Merchants Group (CMG) visited the Hambantota International Port (HIP) on an inspection tour of the facility last week.
Speaking during the visit he said that the China Merchants Group, through its two major projects, Colombo International Container Terminals (LTD) (CICT) and Hambantota International Port, will continue to make further investments in the South Asian region.
Chairman Miao Jianmin was welcomed by Johnson Liu, CEO of Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) and staff of the port. CMG is the parent company of CMPort which has a public private partnership with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) for Hambantota International Port. Founded in 1872 as China’s first commercial corporation, CMG is the pioneer of national industry and commerce in China.
CMG’s Chairman Miao Jianmin’s visit included a tour of the port’s tank farm, oil jetty, RORO terminal, and the newly opened duty free shopping complex. The Group plans to actively promote cooperation with international high-quality enterprises such as Sinopec and focus on RORO, bulk cargo, oil and gas, development of container handling, industrial park, and maritime services.
It is the Group’s mission to build a world-class comprehensive port, with continuously improving supply chain services. CMG has now extended its operations globally to emerging sectors such as big health and testing services. The Group’s major indicators grew steadily, with annual operating revenue reaching 959.01 billion yuan by the end of 2022, up by 3.2% year on year.
Total profits were 219.28 billion yuan, up 3.3% year on year; net profits were 179.61 billion yuan, up 5.9% year on year; and total assets were 12.4 trillion yuan, up 8.1% year on year. Today, the China Merchants Group has over 280,000 employees worldwide. Chairman Miao Jianmin emphasized that employees are a most critical resource of an enterprise, and CMG, across all its subsidiary companies, has provided all-round and multi-level support to ensure employee development. He also spoke of the importance CMG as a group places on employee safety, especially in terms of HIP’s oil terminal and tank farm operations.