SABIC Reaffirms Commitment to Our Partnership with CHINA

2021 marked the twentieth anniversary of the inaugural BFA conference, where SABIC participated as an Honorary Strategic Partner. Following the opening presentation by China’s President Xi Jinping, SABIC Vice-President and CEO Yousef Al-Benyan delivered the first keynote speech from the business community, reiterating SABIC’s belief in the principles of global collaboration and cross-regional cooperation. 

Since the inception of the BFA in 2001, trade and investment in Asia has increased to more than half the world’s total. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, China emerged as the only major global economy to report significant growth at a GDP rate of 2.3% in 2020 and is a key driver of global recovery. As a major globalised collaborator to Chinese business, our renewed partnership pledge is affirmation of our commitment to collaboration, and we are proud to have been recognised as a key corporate intermediary in the development of synergies between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

Since SABIC’s earliest days in China, the hallmark of our strategy for growth and success has been cooperation for mutual benefit. Reflecting on the success of this strategy, SABIC is a key chemicals and plastics supplier, investor, partner, and employer in China, a region which represents more than 40% of global chemical sales.

Our success in China is built on SABIC’s ‘thinking globally, acting locally’ philosophy. We believe that global growth benefits from collaboration and integration with regional partners, which has delivered rapid growth and impressive results across the SABIC network in China, comprised of operations in 14 cities including Beijing, along with plants in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, and a combined workforce of 1,500 people. Our growth in China is ongoing and includes another round of expansion to our petrochemical operation in partnership with Sinopec in Tianjin. We are also currently expediting a world-class petrochemical complex in Fujian Province, and are exploring great investment opportunities as well.

Our partnership with Sinopec is an example of a collaboration in China where growth is underpinned by innovation. In 2013, we opened our technology centre in Shanghai, which is one of 20 SABIC R&D centers of excellence across the globe, and symbolic of our ongoing commitment to innovation. This state-of-the-art facility is home to application and development technologists whose work underlines SABIC’s role as an inclusive growth partner and innovation patron in the Chinese market. The center is a hub of innovation where problem-solving solutions and technologies are devised to address the needs of our Chinese partners across industries and sectors including electronics and electrics, construction, clean energy, transportation, medical technology, and healthcare.  

SABIC is actively shaping the trajectory of a growing and dynamic chemical sector through the delivery of ‘Chemistry that Matters™’. Our industry leading position is maintained through the development of solutions from chemistry that are developed using the latest problem-solving innovations. The innovation inherent in China’s industrial and academic culture has become a key strand of our ongoing transformation. Our commitment to the nurture of innovation and growth in the Asian market has extended to the establishment of partnerships with China’s academic institutions for intellectual exchange and talent development. 

At SABIC, we believe in the potential of China as a driver of global growth and the promise of China’s outstanding scientists, engineers, and students. This long-term and multifaceted collaboration extends to research in the chemical and chemical engineering fields, focusing on the development of advanced technologies and solutions for frontline industrial and societal problems including climate change and sustainability. 

Our collaborative work includes sustainability-focused solutions such as the achievement of greater fuel efficiency through lightweight technologies. Other key collaborative research projects are focused on the application of sustainability principles to the expanded utilisation of feedstock; utilising advancements in composite materials; and engaging the potential of nanotechnology. In a wider context, SABIC is again a well-placed arbiter for global synergies in relation to sustainability. China’s recently launched “14th Five-Year Plan and Long-Range Objectives 2035,” features green development objectives, mirroring key priorities of the “Saudi Green Initiative” and the “Middle East Green Initiative.” 

SABIC recognizes China as a globalised market leader and innovator. Through our ongoing partnerships with industry, research, and academia, SABIC will continue to grow in China with the spirit of collaboration to achieve win-win benefits and to foster a better future for the global business community and all of humanity.