On the morning of November 23, 2024, GEM Indonesia-PT.QMB held a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the Customs Office. Satya Nugraha, Director General of Morowali Customs, Professor Xu Kaihua, Chairman of GEM, along with leaders of Morowali Customs and representatives of partner companies in the IMIP attended the event with more than 300 participants.

Ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the Customs Office

In his speech, Chairman Xu Kaihua first expressed his gratitude to the Indonesian government authorities and IMIP's partner companies who attended the event. He said that the establishment of the PT.QMB

Bonded Zone has created an example of cooperation between local governments and foreign investors, and expressed the Indonesian government's earnestness to encourage the development of foreign investor-funded in Indonesia. The Customs Office is located at the entrance of the PT.QMB area, which is a door-to-door and zero-distance service, bringing great convenience to the global logistics of the area, carrying the highest import and export efficiency, saving global logistics costs, and improving the profitability of the PT.QMB project. This is a form of the spirit of Indonesian Customs in serving global investors and the spirit of hospitality and prosperous development for the people of Indonesia. Chairman Xu Kaihua once again expressed his gratitude to Morowali Customs for the good service all this time to Chinese companies, supporting the growth of PT.QMB and establishing a close friendship. He said that in 2018, GEM as the first company in China's new energy industry to come to IMIP in Morowali, with passion and under the guidance of good cooperation, has made GEM's investment in Indonesia expand from small to large, and has invested more than 3 billion US dollars together with its global partners, to build a first-class “technology + intelligence + green” in the world. As a result, HPAL's nickel resources reached an annual production of 150,000 tons. GEM also took the lead in building ultra-high nickel ternary precursor production lines, promoting the development of high-quality nickel resources in Indonesia and increasing new energy resources, realizing the ideal of “Put nickel laterite in and refine new energy materials out”; building the world's first nickel resource museum, the first research center for laterite nickel ore hydrometallurgy in Indonesia, and the first China-Indonesia joint research laboratory in Bandung, making Chinese technology comprehensively benefit the Indonesian people, and achieving cultural integration and growing with Indonesia.

Currently, the total number of Indonesian employees within PT.QMB is 7,000, which is a high-quality workforce in Indonesia, with total imports of US$1.05 billion from January to September 2024, total exports of US$430 million from January to September 2024, and taxes paid of US$120 million in 2024. With the full support of the Indonesian government, Chairman Xu Kaihua is very confident and promises to continue to invest more, and PT.QMB will always comply with applicable regulations, so as to create a globally leading ESG and regulatory compliant region.

At the same time, Chairman Xu Kaihua shared with the invited guests the results of the project investment agreement signed with PT. Vale on November 10 under the witness of Indonesian President Prabowo. An investment of 1.42 billion US dollars to build an environmentally friendly nickel resource HPAL plant, a China-Indonesia Joint Research Laboratory in Bandung, and a Ten million thousand Talents Training Program.  With the signing of this project, GEM is confident of building another world-class green nickel resource with zero carbon and high ESG standards. Chairman Xu Kaihua quoted President Prabowo's speech at the China-Indonesia Business Forum in Beijing during his visit to China this month, “one thousand friends are too few, one enemy is too many”, hinting at the hope of close cooperation in various fields and highly appreciated President Prabowo's efforts in promoting the development of China-Indonesia friendship.

Chairman Xu Kaihua also expressed his gratitude to the shareholders of PT.QMB - IMIP, Tsingshan Group and CATL, especially to Chairman Zheng Hanlie, Chairman Xiang Guangda and Chairman Li Changdong for their strong support over the years.

Speech delivered by Prof. Xu Kaihua, Chairman of GEM

In his speech, Satya Nugraha, Director General of Morowali Customs, stated that Morowali Customs is very proud of the fact that PT. QMB has been granted a Bonded Zone License since 2023, and expected that PT. QMB will be able to utilize the policy in a compliant and efficient manner. He promised that Customs will continue to improve the quality of supervision, speed up processes, and simplify services to support the smooth operation of PT. QMB. He also recognized that the Customs Office of PT.QMB is a symbol of the good spirit of cooperation between Customs and Enterprise, and expressed his gratitude to Chairman Xu Kaihua, for his support to the work of Customs.

Speech delivered by Satya Nugraha, Director of Customs, Morowali

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Chairman Xu Kaihua accompanied Director Satya Nugraha to visit PT.QMB's living area. Satya Nugraha expressed his sincere gratitude to Chairman Xu Kaihua and PT.QMB for their contribution to advancing China-Indonesia cultural integration, and invited enterprises in the park to follow PT.QMB's footsteps in advancing China-Indonesia cultural integration and development.

Satya Nugraha, Director of Morowali Customs, and his delegation visited PT.QMB's living area.

Mu Mengang, Deputy General Manager and CFO of GEM, Song Wei, Deputy General Manager of GEM, and the management of PT.QMB also participated in the event.