Yili Industrial Group, a dairy giant based in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, signed a cooperation agreement with the local government of Bayan Nur city Dec 28. 

The two sides promised to jointly launch a high-end organic dairy industrial cluster model project, which is expected to become a world-class organic and high-end milk base. 

Li Bingrong, vice-chairman of the autonomous region, and Pan Gang, president of Yili Group, attended the signing ceremony.

Zhang Jianqiu, chief executive director of Yili Group, said in his speech that with strong support from the municipal government, the project will improve the competitiveness of the city's economy and enhance the people's sense of happiness and security. 

According to officials, Bayan Nur is located in the world’s golden dairy source belt. The Hetao Plain in the territory is renowned for its beautiful natural scenery. Its organic milk production accounts for more than half of the total amount in China. 

Yili officials said the project was planned to cover 366 square kilometer of high-standard farmland with 360,000 high-quality dairy cows. The annual production capacity is expected to reach 4,000 tons. 

The milk base is expected to boost related industries such as planting, breeding, feed processing, dairy processing, and logistics and packaging, and contribute at least 180 billion yuan ($26 billion) to the local industry chain and add 60,000 jobs, officials said. 

The city government has attached great importance to the cooperation effort and held several meetings with Yili Group to speed up the implementation of the win-win project. 

The State Council recently proposed that by 2020, the supply-side structural reform of Chinese dairy industry should achieve substantive results, and that dairy modernization needs to go further. 

Zhang said that, as a leading Chinese dairy company, Yili shoulders the important task of revitalizing the Chinese dairy industry. For many years, Yili has adhered to the concept that "industrial prosperity is better than individual glory, and social value is greater than commercial wealth". 

Yili Industrial Group, a dairy giant based in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, signs a cooperation agreement with the local government of Bayan Nur city in North China's Inner Mongolia Dec 28. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]