On the afternoon of April 17, the signing ceremony for the national auto parts torch base project and the launching ceremony for the test ground took place at the Valeo test ground in Jingzhou.
Zhou Zhihong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of Jingzhou, attended the ceremony. Zhou Xiangyang, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and First Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Jingzhou Economic &Technological Development Zone, Zhou Song, President of Valeo China, and Laurent Cuenoud, Deputy Consul of the French Consulate General in Wuhan, gave speeches at the ceremony. Jin Peng, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and Vice Mayor of Jingzhou, and Hu Chenghong, Secretary-General of Jingzhou Municipal Government also attended the event.
Zhou Xiangyang conveyed congratulations for the successful launch of Valeo Test Ground, and thanked Valeo for the extraordinary contribution it has made for the development of Jingzhou on behalf of the CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and Jingzho Municipal Government. He said that the auto parts industry is a key industry that Hubei Province attaches great importance to, but also one of the pillar industries for Jingzhou’s establishment of "4611" modern industrial system. As a national foreign trade transformation and upgrading base for auto parts and a National Torch Program Automobile and Parts Industry Base, Jingzhou has striven to speed up the intelligent, lightweight and networking transformation. Currently, Jingzhou is hastening its progress to boost construction of the Jianghan Plain high-quality development demonstration zone, which is featured with more favorable policies, the rebuild of comprehensive advantage, and the explosion of accumulated development strength. We sincerely welcome entrepreneurs to visit and invest in Jingzhou. The CPC Jingzhou Municipal Committee and Jingzhou Municipal Government will make efforts to create a relieved, sound and excellent environment for investment and living with the most-favored policies and the best services.
Zhou Song said that Jingzhou is the first station when Valeo starting business in China in 1994. In the past 30 years, thanks to its rapid growth, Valeo has gradually set up a business network centering on Jingzhou and radiating to China and even Asia region. With the commitment to taking an active part in promoting Jingzhou’s development, Valeo, based on the existing cooperation, will put more efforts on R&D innovation and project incubation, accelerate the high-level and high-quality development of its autonomous driving business and contribute to Jingzhou’s goal of making itself a high-quality automotive equipment industrial hub in central China, thus creating a new chapter of mobility with advanced technology.
The seven projects involved in the signing ceremony, including Valeo's autonomous driving test ground project, automobile and home appliance parts production base project, deplating and copper extraction of automobile scrap metal parts project, and titanium recycling processing project, are highly consistent with Jingzhou's strategic development of auto parts industry, which will undoubtedly extend the industrial chain, enhance the value chain and improve the supply chain further, thus empowering Jingzhou in the promotion of new quality productive forces and new-type industrialization.
It is learned that, Jingzhou’s test base for Valeo comfort and driving assistance systems, the first intelligent driving test base of Valeo in China, will effectively promote the frontier exploration and practical application of intelligent driving technology at home and abroad.
The participants had a try on Vale's autonomous driving technology after the event.