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The 'queen of wastepaper' makes her presence felt

By Lu Haoting and Song Lijun (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-08 06:59

CPPCC National Committee member Zhang Yin never managed to become a newsmaker during the previous NPC and CPPCC sessions.

Somehow the founder of China's largest packaging manufacturer had managed to maintain a relatively low profile.

That all changed after she topped the China's richest people list last October.

Her business plan is simple enough: She ships several million tons of wastepaper from the United States and Europe to China and recycles it into cardboard, which is then used for boxes that wrap electronics and toys that are shipped back across the oceans to Western countries.

Zhang, "the hidden champion", has also been crowned "queen of wastepaper" in recognition of the material foundations of her estimated $3.4 billion personal wealth. The 'queen of wastepaper' makes her presence felt

"I would rather be known as 'queen of cardboard' some day," Zhang, chairman of Nine Dragons Paper, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"My business is not collecting wastepaper, period. I turn the wastepaper into raw materials for making paper. That is the difference," she added, by way of explaining why most wastepaper collectors have not managed to amass the riches she has.

The first impression Zhang gives most people is that she is small in stature and speaks very quickly. Her ebullient personality may have helped make her the great saleswoman and savvy dealmaker that she is.

And the 49-year-old businesswoman is cooking up another plan.

By next year, Nine Dragons Paper is expected to take over Smurfit-Stone, making it the world's largest containerboard maker. And when its third production base, in Southwest China's Chongqing, comes online next year, Nine Dragons Paper will have an annual output of 7.75 million tons, Zhang said.

The 12-year-old company's paper machines are currently located in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, and Taicang, in Jiangsu Province.

"To me, the rankings of the China Rich List are just a set of figures that help people evaluate the values of companies," Zhang said.

"I care more about how I can make Nine Dragons Paper a 100-year-old business. It is not only a life-long career for me, but a business that will last for generations because paper recycles itself, generation after generation," Zhang added.

Her proposal to the CPPCC this year is to simplify procedures for companies to extend their land use rights. In China, enterprises obtain their land use rights through leases with a 50-year term.

"Fifty years is a short period for an enterprise. Who will own the right to use the land 50 years later?" Zhang asked.

She suggested that enterprises that meet certain requirements should be able to extend their contracts without going through lengthy and complicated application procedures.

In another proposal, Zhang called for a reduction of value-added tax (VAT).

"China's VAT of 17 percent is much higher than it is in neighbouring countries, such as Vietnam, where the VAT ranges between 5 percent and 10 percent," Zhang said. "That is not helpful to maintain the competitiveness of Chinese products in international markets."

(China Daily 03/08/2007 page6)