Recently, Chang Rui, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of BAIC Group, and Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of BAIC Foton, led a team to successfully promote two major collaborations for BAIC Foton in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia: signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the construction of a local chemical plant with the Saudi government and enterprises, and centrally delivering 1,000 school buses to Saudi customers.
Strengthening Local Cooperation and Deepening Regional Layout
Currently, Saudi Arabia is in a strategic window period for accelerating the industrial transformation of its “Vision 2030”. BAIC Foton has seized the opportunity to make a breakthrough in the Saudi market. On June 19, Foton International Trade, the Saudi Ministry of Investment, the Saudi National Industrial Development Center, and the well-known Saudi enterprise Petromin jointly signed a four-party MOU to construct a localized commercial vehicle manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, mainly producing heavy trucks, light trucks, and buses. This cooperation project is an important measure for the Saudi government to promote industrial localization under “Vision 2030”. BAIC Foton will assist in local manufacturing and logistics development, strengthen the supply chain, enhance localization, create job opportunities, drive the development of local small and medium-sized enterprises, and support Saudi Arabia’s industrial economic transformation and sustainable high-quality development.
Meanwhile, this project is also an important achievement of BAIC Foton’s continuous implementation of the “internationalization” strategy and deep market cultivation. Currently, BAIC Foton has established 32 localized chemical plants worldwide, with products and services covering more than 130 countries and regions. The cooperation with Saudi Arabia marks a further upgrade of BAIC Foton’s global industrial chain collaboration capabilities.
Batch Delivery of School Buses Sets a Benchmark for Chinese Brands
On June 21, BAIC Foton officially delivered 1,000 customized school buses to major Saudi customers. The batch of vehicles will be used for local students’ daily commuting, covering Riyadh and Jizan, a southern city in Saudi Arabia. These school buses are equipped with Cummins ISF2.8 engines, significantly improving power output efficiency on steep slopes and ensuring stable commuting on long-distance uphill and downhill roads. The vehicles are equipped with an ESC stability monitoring system, paying more attention to students’ safe travel. For Saudi Arabia’s extreme climate, the dual-side air ducts are specially optimized, and the cooling system is upgraded to provide students with a cooler and more comfortable commuting experience. Designs such as long wheelbase and independent adjustable child seats bring extra-large and comfortable space to students with higher safety performance. At the same time, a service guarantee system including full-process service tracking, strategic reserve of key components, and all-weather service is established to further ensure students’ safe travel needs. This delivery marks BAIC Foton’s breakthrough in the field of educational transportation in the Middle East and will also help local customers create a better life with “technical adaptation + pre-service”.
The signing of the MOU for the localized manufacturing plant and the delivery of 1,000 school buses mark BAIC Foton’s leap from product export to deep localized cooperation in the Saudi market, further consolidating the strategic cooperation relationship between China and Saudi Arabia in the automotive industry. BAIC Foton will “strive to become a world-class enterprise”, continue to accelerate the transformation of “comprehensive internationalization, comprehensive new energyization, and comprehensive intelligence”, drive the energy revolution with green technology, deepen value creation, enhance global terminal marketing capabilities, strengthen the one-stop service system, and help the global transportation industry accelerate towards intelligence and carbon neutrality.
