Editor’s Note: Guangdong recently awarded the “Guangdong Friendship Award” to 49 foreign friends from 23 countries, acknowledging those who have made outstanding contributions to Guangdong’s economic and social development, as well as international exchanges. GDToday presents Friends’ Talk and shares the award winners’ stories with Guangdong.

“It is a great pleasure for me to receive the Guangdong Friendship Award,” said Ueda Tatsuro, CEO of China Region, Toyota Motor Corporation in an interview with GDToday. “It is also a great honor for our partner Guangzhou Auto Group and my colleagues in China.”

Ueda has served as the CEO of China Region of Toyota since 2018. In his opinion, Guangdong is an impressive region of China with a strong economy and high-level opening up. 

To select a place to build the first production line for GAC Toyota, Ueda visited Guangdong 20 years ago.

“We went to Guangzhou’s Nansha at that time and found that there was nothing but banana fields,” Ueda doubted it. “Could we really build a car manufacturing plant somewhere like this?”

However, after 18 years of development, the GAC Toyota has been one of the top car brands in China with the capacity of producing 1 million cars. 

Last year, the Chinese government issued an overall plan for the Nansha District of Guangzhou. This plan aims to build Nansha as one of the cooperation platforms to further reform and opening up in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 

Ueda believes that the policy issued by China will not only further develop the industry chains in Nansha, but also elevate Guangzhou’s business environment to another level.

“I feel confident in Guangdong’s future,” said Ueda. “We will continue to deepen our cooperation with GAC and make more contributions to Guangdong’s development.” 

Reporter: Steven

Editor: Wing, Jerry