A Parkson shopping mall in Beijing
According to Mr. William Cheng, chairman of The Lion Group of Malaysia and permanent honorary president of Malaysia’s Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Malaysian conglomerate that owns the Parkson department store chain plans to build a Parkson Shopping Center in Xiamen in the next two years.
The Lion Group of Malaysia is the Malaysian enterprise that invests most in China. Since 1993, it has been investing in department stores, automobile manufacturing and wine-making industries in China. It has opened Parkson department stores in over 20 Chinese provinces.
The Lion Group was established in the 1930s and today has operations in Malaysia, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, USA and Mexico. It is engaged in a large spectrum of businesses including steel, automobiles, computers, paper-making, wine production and real estate.
Mr. William Cheng, an overseas Chinese entrepreneur, was dubbed the “King of Steel”, as his Lion Group produces 60% of the total steel production in Malaysia.
Given the fact of the great challenges posed by the online shopping craze, he still has positive expectations for the shopping center business, and said it matters more that retailers can provide quality and personalized service for customers.
He also showed his appreciation of the development pattern of “one economic belt and one silk road”, which includes the Yangtze River Economic Zone and the Maritime Silk Road. The development pattern was proposed during the third China Forum of the World Trade Center Association.
Malaysia, as China’s biggest foreign trade partner of the Southeast Asian countries, achieved trade revenue of 100 billion US dollars in 2013 and is expected to see 50 billion US dollars or more this year.
