An Indonesian company – PT. Astra Agro Lestari’s palm oil processing projects at Tianjin Lingang Economic Area kicked off on April 18. He Lifeng, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Tianjin Municipality and secretary of the Party Committee of Binhai New Area, met with Lin Yijian, president of PT. Astra Agro Lestari, and his delegation. Mr. He firstly extended his warm welcome to the guests, congratulated them on the starting of the project, and then had a conversation with the guests on in-depth cooperation.
He Shushan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Binhai New Area and Li Weicheng ， the director of the Management Committee of Tianjin Economic & Technological Development Area, , a member of the Standing Committee and Secretary general of the Party Committee of Binhai New Area, Wang Sheng, deputy governor of Binhai New Area, Xu Hongxing, general manager of Sinopec Tianjin Company, and relevant responsible persons from the Management Committee of Lingang Economic Area and relevant departments of Binhai New Area also attended the meeting. Liu Zili, a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Binhai New Area and executive deputy governor of Binhai New Area delivered a speech on the meeting.
According to He Lifeng, grain and cooking oil foodstuffs is a leading industry of Binhai New Area and thus receives great attentions in the process of development. Lingang Economic Area, as an integral part of the “Ten Great Development Platforms”, has prominent comprehensive advantages in aspects of port, policy, transportation, and market and thus has attracted a large number of big and quality projects to settle here. In the future, it will be built into the biggest comprehensive oil and grease processing base in North China. PT. Astra Agro Lestari has been keeping close partnership with Binhai New Area and the investment of this project will forcefully promote the development of grain and cooking oil industry of Binhai New Area. It is hoped that both parties could move forward to broaden the cooperation and enhance the cooperation level. Binhai New Area will, as it always does, double its effort in creating favorable environment so as to provide sound and efficient service to enterprises.
Lin Yijian extended his gratitude for Binhai New Area’s support to the project. He said, “It is inspiring to see that Binhai New Area is developing at such a high speed; it solidifies our confidence in making investment here. We will seize this precious opportunity, advance the project construction strenuously, and complete and put the project into operation as early as possible.”
In his speech, Liu Zili said, “as a leader of Southeast Asian palm oil industry, PT. Astra Agro Lestari shows a strategic insight in choosing Binhai New Area for factory building. As the construction of the project started smoothly, it will inject new vigor and power to the development of Binhai New Area. It is hoped that all relevant departments and Lingang Economic Area keep on providing considerate “nanny-like” service to the project and create a favorable environment for it, so as to get ready for the project’s smooth construction, completion, putting into operation, as well as the future cooperation between both parties.
PT. Astra Agro Lestari is a large-scale and comprehensive palm oil industrial group. It boasts a number of palm plantations and plants engaging in palm fruit squeezing, palm oil refining, soap, biodiesel, butterine, fatty acid, and oil chemical industry, etc. The projects kicked off at Lingang Economic Area include refining workshop, fractionation workshop, attachment tank area, crude oil tank area, refined oil tank area, and supportive facilities. After completion, the overall production scale of those projects will be: refining and fractionating palm oil 1000 ton respectively per day, producing refined palm oil 285 thousand tons, palm palmitin 228 thousand tons, and palm stearin 57 thousand tons per year.
