Zheng Mingru's ancestral home is Fengshun, Guangdong. /kloc-More than 0/00 years ago, forced by livelihood, my grandfather took a group of compatriots across the ocean to make a living in Nanyang, and later settled in Pan Su, central Thailand. Grandpa can't read and lives by selling coolies. Then my grandfather died unfortunately. Since then, Zheng Mingru's father has shouldered the burden of bringing home the bacon. Zheng Mingru's father is a man with a good business mind. He has run a rice mill, a gauze grocery store and a rice shop. Zheng Mingru followed his father in business since childhood and set foot in business since childhood. The concept of "business" has long been ingrained in his mind.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Zheng Mingru dropped out of school. But he mastered Chinese by tenacious self-study, and then he mastered Thai and English at school. As for business administration, he was self-taught and got a doctorate in business administration. Learning by doing, learning by doing, Zheng Mingru got full exercise in this process. After World War II, Zheng Mingru decided to start his own business. /kloc-married a local Thai girl Li at the age of 0/9, at the age of 17. After getting married, he started his first shop, mainly dealing in fabrics, clothes and groceries. He has a good knowledge and a good business mind since he was a child, which makes him feel at home in the business world and develop rapidly. But Pan Su, after all, is too small for ambitious Zheng Mingru. At the age of 23, he decided to return to Bangkok and make great achievements. At that time, northeast Thailand was rich in a variety of precious timber, which had great potential for timber business. Zheng Mingru found the business opportunity and immediately established Jiafa Co., Ltd., mainly engaged in the import and export business of processed wood. Because the products are marketable, his business is very prosperous, so he dug up the first bucket of gold and set foot in business. After the success of timber management in Bangkok, Zheng Mingru was not intoxicated. He has a bigger dream, which is to make the business of the Zheng family bigger, better and stronger. After investigation, he decided to enter the financial industry first. In order to understand this industry, he first worked in Bangkok Bank for one year, then worked as a clerk in Bangkok Middle East Bank, mastered the bank's business philosophy and trust knowledge, and accumulated rich practical experience. Two years later, he decided to formally enter the financial industry. He and his brother, Mr. Zheng Wulou, who later became a pioneer in Thailand's financial industry, invested more than10 million baht and started Jinghua Bank. From 65438 to 0973, Zheng Mingru invested 40 million baht to establish Guotai Trust Company. Since then, the trust company's business has developed rapidly and its own strength has been continuously strengthened. From commercial capital to financial capital, Zheng completed a historic leap. Today, Guotai Trust Company has become one of the backbone enterprises in the great cause of the Zheng family.
In the early 1960s, Thailand's economy developed rapidly, and the construction industry was busy. Zheng Mingru is keenly aware that the great development of the construction industry has led to a great increase in the demand for glass, and the glass industry has unlimited business opportunities. At that time, there was a shortage of glass in Thailand, and almost all of it was imported from abroad. To this end, he and his eldest brother made a special trip to a glass factory in Taiwan Province Province, which strengthened their confidence in getting on the horse. After many contacts with foreign businessmen, we finally reached an intention to set up a "Taixu Glass Factory" with the Japanese consortium. After development, the glass factory has expanded from one factory to four, with assets reaching tens of billions of baht, becoming one of the two pillar industries of Zheng Industry. Next, Zheng Mingru took a fancy to the chemical industry. He believes that chemical industry is the mother of industry and chemical products are the basic elements of industrial development. All advanced industrial countries attach great importance to the development of chemical industry. After the glass factory, he invested12 million baht to set up Taixu Chemical Co., Ltd. to process and refine industrial salt from sea salt in Thailand as a "touchstone" to enter this industry. In the early 1980s, after inspecting European and American countries, he decided to increase investment, with a total investment of one billion baht. He used Pimai, a rich underground salt mine in northeastern Thailand, and absorbed advanced foreign equipment, technology and experience to produce domestic industrial salt and refined edible salt. After Zheng's salt plant was put into production, it became the largest salt plant in Thailand, half of which was exported and half of which was supplied to the domestic market, and the domestic industrial salt market was almost monopolized by him.
Because of this, Zheng's industry has been able to grow and develop in the continuous diversified expansion and management. Taixu Soda Co., Ltd., a joint venture between him and a Japanese company, was the first large-scale basic chemical product base established in Thailand in the 1960s, which changed the long-term dependence on imports of chemical products in Thailand. Its textile industry is also one of the few in Thailand, and most of its textiles are exported to Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East. Real estate and hotel industry are also famous, and the hotel named after him in Bangkok-Wen Song Hotel is even more famous ... So far, Zheng has made great achievements. According to the disclosure, the total assets of the group have reached more than US$ 2 billion, and he himself was awarded the title of Chief Rich in China and Thailand. Zheng Mingru said: "I have lived in China for generations, so foreign investors must go to China first to make a modest contribution to the development of China." Investing in China has become the first choice for Zheng Group's overseas investment, and all this is only because he is a descendant of the Dragon.
The first joint venture project was completed as early as 1980. Asked about the reasons for opening hotels, he thinks that it is the minimum condition for backward areas to have several decent hotels to attract foreigners to invest in tourism. More foreigners come to invest in tourism, and the local area will naturally become rich.
In the early 1980s, Cathay Pacific and Sino-US joint venture established the Sino-Thai-American "Float Flat Glass Factory" in Shekou, with an investment of/kloc-0.50 billion US dollars, which was one of the largest foreign investment projects introduced by China at that time. It took him three years to build the factory and put it into production on 1983. At that time, Thai Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and other Thai politicians all rushed from Thailand to Shekou to attend the groundbreaking ceremony. Obviously, its significance has gone far beyond the joint venture itself, and the factory has become another vivid symbol of Thai-Chinese friendship.
In 1990s, the pace of Zheng Guotai's investment in China was further accelerated. 1992 invested 40 million dollars to build the "Mingru Hotel" named after Zheng Mingru in Beihai, Guangxi; On April 30th, 1993, Tailong Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which was solely established by Cathay Pacific Group in Chongqing, Sichuan Province, opened with a total investment of 1 billion USD. June 1993, invested 1 100 million yuan to build Hangzhou comprehensive commercial building; In June of the same year, 5438+ 10, invested10.2 billion USD to build Nanchang Xiecheng Leather Industry City, and the prime ministers of China and Thailand attended the signing ceremony, which was unprecedented. He invested in Haikou 1 billion dollars to open a wholly-owned bank; He is also interested in mainland jewelry market, food industry, Tianjin "Oriental Culture and Entertainment Park" and other projects. ...
Like his investment in Thailand, Zheng Mingru has a wide range of investment projects in Chinese mainland. Perhaps what he wants to do is to recreate a huge "Xinzheng Guotai" on the mainland. From 65438 to 0978, Zheng Ming was elected as the tenth chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, and has been re-elected for ten times so far, which shows that his prestige in overseas Chinese groups is extremely high.
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand was established in 19 10. Its purpose is to unite overseas Chinese, be loyal to Thailand, respect the royal family, promote friendly cooperation between China and Thailand, and promote industrial and commercial development at home and abroad.
In fact, since Mr. Zheng became the president of the Chamber of Commerce, he has shifted more energy to the work of the Chamber of Commerce. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand has more and more contacts with overseas Chinese communities and business organizations all over the world. Zheng Mingru often receives a large number of guests, especially China's economic and trade delegations and inspection teams from central to local governments.
1991August, the world's first Chinese Chamber of Commerce was held in Singapore, with Zheng Mingru as one of the three founders. He has close ties with Lin Shaoliang, the richest Indonesian Chinese businessman, and Wang Yongqing, a Taiwanese businessman, and encourages them to invest in Chinese mainland, cooperate with each other and contribute to the development of the motherland. He pointed out that the convening of the World Chinese Business Congress is a historic event. Nowadays, China people live in every corner, but unfortunately, overseas Chinese from all over the world have been scattered and lack contact. The World Conference of Chinese Businessmen has established and consolidated economic relations among Chinese Businessmen in the world, and made great contributions in the history of global economic development.
Following 1993, the second Chinese businessmen conference was held in Hong Kong, and 1995, the third Chinese businessmen conference was held in Thailand. Up to now, it has been held for eight times in a row, and the Chinese business conference held every two years has become a feast for Chinese businessmen all over the world, with increasing influence.
During Mr. Zheng's tenure as president of the Chamber of Commerce, there were two things that best reflected his good intentions. The first is to set up a Chinese language college. Zheng Mingru is a third generation Chinese living in Thailand. He found that after the third generation, the Chinese level of Chinese living in Thailand has greatly declined, which is not conducive to their carrying forward the fine traditions of Chinese culture, nor to the growing economic cooperation between China and Thailand. Thanks to their efforts, the problem of Chinese education in middle schools, which has been interrupted for 40 years, has been satisfactorily solved. Later, on this basis, the School of Business Technology of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was established to train more talents in China.
The second is to demolish Guanghua Hall, the former site of the General Chamber of Commerce, and build a 35-story "Thailand General Pavilion". A few overseas Chinese people are opposed to the demolition of the old Guanghua Hall, but he firmly believes that a new building must be built for the century-old foundation of the Thai General Chamber of Commerce. 1990 On August 24th, the foundation stone was laid for the building, and 1994 was put into use. The new building * * * is divided into two buildings, one with 35 floors and the other with a floor of 1 1. The area of the two * * * buildings is 102 100 square meters, where the third World Chinese Business Conference was held. With the successful convening of the Chinese Business Conference, the "Chinese General Building" went to all parts of the world overnight. All this also reflects Mr. Wang's foresight.
What China people can't forget is the "Fulu Shoucheng" built by Zheng Mingru in the name of "Chinese General Chamber of Commerce" in Dongben County, Lapifu, a suburb of Bangkok, which is a comprehensive building complex integrating Thai and Chinese culture, art and history. In addition to the memorial hall of China people's great achievements sheltered by Thai emperors, there is also the memorial hall of China people's "Hundred Family Names", which is dedicated to the ancestors of China's surname, providing a basis for China people to remember their ancestors, drink water, think about their roots and worship their ancestors, and showing a brief history of the Chinese clan association established in Thailand. The word "Fu Lushou" represents the cultural tradition of China and the yearning of ordinary people in China for thousands of years. Of course, Zheng Mingru wishes the descendants of the Yellow Emperor a long life and good health through these three words, but his real wish is to carry forward the true meaning of Chinese culture. In particular, it is necessary to let overseas Chinese people forget their ancestors and roots. The establishment of "Fulu Shoucheng" is regarded as a great pioneering work of Zheng Mingru, which is deeply appreciated by Thai people. Fulu Shoucheng, which integrates culture, history and entertainment, has increasingly become a must-see place for tourists, especially overseas Chinese and Chinese businessmen to travel to Thailand. Zheng Mingru is not only a successful industrialist and a famous social activist, but also a well-known person who is keen on charity.
From 65438 to 0980, at the invitation of the China government, he led a delegation of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Thailand to visit China, and put forward seven valuable opinions on the reform and opening up in the Mainland. Many of his far-sighted suggestions have been adopted by local governments and shown to be effective. He invested heavily in running primary and secondary schools, building hydropower stations and building roads for Jiuhe Township in Fengshun County, his hometown ... and was warmly welcomed by local party and government leaders and villagers.
As the chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, he spared no effort to solve the sufferings of the people of China. During the Indo-zhina War, overseas Chinese from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia took refuge in Thailand. In order to resettle more than 1000 refugees, he wrote to UNHCR on behalf of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, so that more than 1000 refugees could be resettled in France, Canada and other countries.
Zheng Mingru has been naturalized in Thailand, and the name of Thailand is Shi Wensong Fengyun. He often gives generously to the poor in Thailand. For decades, he has been sponsoring the construction of Buddhist temples, bridges, hospitals and schools in Pan Su's hometown ... His rescue activities have been fully affirmed by the Thai royal family. Therefore, His Majesty the King of Thailand awarded him the first-class Crown Medal and the first-class White Elephant Medal, which is Thailand's greatest honor.
In Zheng Mingru's photo album, there are many precious photos: Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Hu Jintao and other party and state leaders have met him successively ... Zheng Mingru comes to China many times every year, and his name is closely linked with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, which has set a monument for human progress.
Today, 83-year-old Mr. Zheng Mingru is still full of energy. He thinks he still has a lot of things to do ... as Mr. Zheng said: "People should never be satisfied. I am proud of struggling all my life."