Video and photos by Lin Jianping except otherwise stated.
Thanks to his rich experiences, Spanish entrepreneur Víctor Ladreda was invited to work for the government of Hengqin to attract and attend to entities from Spanish-speaking countries from 2015 to 2020. Over the years, Ladreda has witnessed the rapid development of the free trade zone in Zhuhai.
Víctor Ladreda poses for a photo on the beach in Zhuhai.
Ladreda, an entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience, started his business in China in 2006. Back then, he already saw China's great potential.
Zhuhai Grand Theater.
For an entrepreneur like him, Ladreda encountered China as a country full of opportunities. He saw business in everything he did. It was at that moment when he quickly decided to develop professionally in China and build his future here. “I didn't know in which field I would work, whether to continue doing what I was working on in Spain or in other fields, but it was clear to me that the country where I wanted to develop was China.”
Víctor Ladreda at Zhuhai National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone.
Now, after over 15 years in China, Ladreda confirmed that China’s potential is clear. “China is a leading country in everything, in technology, in commerce, economically...”
From doing business to providing consultation services
Ladreda set up his first company in 2001. Through this company, he started manufacturing textile and sports equipment. Together with his team, he came to China because they saw that China was the country that offered quality products at the best price.
Víctor Ladreda has an exclusive interview with Shenzhen Daily.
“In 2006, one of the things we were doing was managing the marketing and image of athletes. So, we had to manufacture a large volume of products and textiles related to sports merchandising. That’s why we decided to look for a place where they could provide us with all those products, quality products at a good price,” Ladreda said, adding that as a result, he ended up doing business with China.
In the beginning, they did business in China with the help of other people who had been in the country longer. However, as time passed, they accumulated experience and knowledge; so from 2009, Ladreda and his partners started to do their China projects on their own.
A scene in Zhuhai.
“From then on, we started to do a lot of things in the field of sports, education and tourism, because at that time more and more Chinese tourists visited Spain, and the number had been growing over the years. We started to do all kinds of businesses and projects,” Ladreda said.
Víctor Ladreda shows reporters of Shenzhen Daily around Zhuhai.
With his rich experiences in doing business in China, people started to consult him in this regard.
“A lot of people start asking you how you did it, how you got the suppliers, how you managed to develop your business in China or how you set up your company in China. And there, we saw the opportunity that we could also offer consulting,” Ladreda said.
They then developed a business offering consulting services and started working with Spanish companies that wanted to develop business in China as well as with Chinese companies that wanted to do business in Spain.
The consultancy worked very well and several administrations in China, such as Guangdong, Henan and Wuhan, asked them for help to develop projects in Spain. “It was word of mouth, and among different administrations they started to recommend us,” he said proudly.
Attracting companies from Spanish-speaking countries for Hengqin
Things were going well and in 2014 the administration of Hengqin Free Trade Zone offered him the position as the general manager of the Economic and Trade Office for Spanish-speaking Markets of the Hengqin Free Trade Zone.
Hengqin Port in August 2020. (Photo/Xinhua)
“They wanted me to help companies from Spanish-speaking countries to be able to develop their business in China by utilizing all the knowledge and all the experience I had gained,” he explained.
It was an offer that could not be refused because very rarely could an expat have such an opportunity to work in a public administration in China.
“No one can turn down an offer from the Chinese public administration to lead a public project and be able to see from the inside how a public institution works, have access to many contacts, have access to very interesting projects and witness Hengqin’s growth,” Ladreda said.
He had a team of 70 people, and his main role was to attract and receive companies that wanted to do business in Hengqin, accompany them, and show them the services they offered for the establishment of their company in Hengqin.
“We would take care of all the expenses involved in setting up a company in Hengqin. We gave them the postal address. We gave them everything. With our help, it was very easy for a foreign company to set up here in Hengqin,” he said.
The position required him to travel a lot during those five years. He once calculated the days he had spent in different places during the final year, and China came out on top, Spain second and the plane third. “On a plane I had slept 30 nights, that is, one month of that year I had slept on a plane, traveling from one country to another,” Ladreda recalled smiling.
Víctor Ladreda delivers a speech at an event when he worked for the Hengqin government. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
During those five years, Ladreda and his team accomplished all the objectives they had set for the development of projects with companies from Spanish-speaking countries in Hengqin.
“We attended over 4,500 entities, public institutions or private companies from Spanish-speaking countries that wanted to develop business of any kind here, from setting up their company, to looking for investors, buying, selling... All kinds of entities including multinational companies, small companies, local governments from different Spanish-speaking countries, universities, sports clubs...” he said.
One the most outstanding achievements he had made as head of the Hengqin office was that he played a key role in getting the Spanish football club Real Madrid to decide to set up its first theme park in the world in Hengqin. Besides, representative offices of Hengqin have been set up in 15 countries in Europe and America.
Víctor Ladreda takes a stroll on the beach in Zhuhai.
From this special experience, Ladreda has gained many good things, especially a better understanding of China. “I knew China from the private entrepreneur side. This experience gave me the opportunity to know China from the public administration side. It’s a privilege that very few people have, and I am very grateful that the Hengqin government thought I was qualified for that,” Ladreda said.
Ladreda believes that one of the advantages of the govenance in China is that the country has very long-term plans, which will be implemented no matter who are in the administration.
“In Spain and in Europe in general, government plans are usually for four years until the next election. They are very short-term plans and in China they are very long-term plans. It doesn’t matter who are in the government, the plan is above the people. So that is a great advantage,” he said.
Chimelong Hengqin Bay Hotel in 2019. (Photo/Xinhua)
When he arrived in Hengqin in late 2014, there was basically nothing in the area. “It was an area where the only thing there was water because it is an island that has been gaining land from the sea. There was only one tall building, just one, which was a building of the Hengqin public administration. Today, eight years later, it has become almost a city with a capacity of 300,000 people. There are more than 100,000 companies in Hengqin. It’s crazy to see how China is able to develop projects of this volume. You can’t refuse to be part of a project of this importance,” he exclaimed, adding that he feels like one of the parents who has seen such an impressive project come to life.
Continuing with projects related to China
After finishing his task for the Hengqin government, Ladreda continues with his own projects, to two of which he dedicates more time: Weilai and Xi You Bao. He is general manager of Weilai in China, a Mexican company dedicated to trainings linked to China in Spanish language, and co-founder of Xi You Bao, an application to facilitate Chinese tourism abroad.
Weilai is a company specialized in organizing academic entrepreneurship programs in China for Spanish speakers. The programs are certified by the Mexican government.
Mexican students who joined the program to China pose for a photo at Tiananmen Square. (Courtesy of the interviewee.)
“There is a lot of interest in Hispanic America in doing business with China and what we do is bring those people through offline programs to the Greater Bay Area, the best place where they can learn how to develop their businesses,” he explained.
Ladreda said that the vast majority of their clients are university students. They have agreements with universities, mainly in Mexico, where the company is headquartered and where the project started in 2014.
“We have also been growing in Spain, Argentina and Colombia. More and more universities from different countries want their students to have the opportunity to develop in the field of business with China,” he said.
Mexican students join a trip of the program to China in 2016. (Courtesy of the interviewee.)
More than 30 companies with China businesses have been set up by students who participated in the program from 2014 to 2019.
The program worked very well until 2019, but it had to stop after that year because of the pandemic. Even so, Ladreda and his team continue to improve the program and expand its influence. “We hope that in the spring of 2023, we can bring the program groups again,” he said hopefully.
Mexican students join the academic program in China. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
On the other hand, Xi You Bao is a mini program in Chinese within WeChat, where a Chinese tourist can find everything he might need abroad. “A Chinese tourist, who passes in front of a restaurant, a hotel or a museum, simply scans the QR code that he can find using our mini program, and he will have all the information about the place including its phone number, email, history, photos, geolocation, services, products..." he explained.
A screenshot of the mini program Xi You Bao. (Photo/Chen Xiaochun)
The Greater Bay Area: the best place to do business
Guangzhou-Shenzhen Riverside Expressway.
For the Spanish entrepreneur, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is the best place to do business in China.
“I would say it is one of the best in the world because of its development. Starting with the fact that Guangdong is the province that has had the biggest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in China for more than 30 years. Within China, it is the strongest economy. We have more than 126 million people in a comparatively small space and huge economic capacity, so you can develop a lot of business without taking long trips,” he said.
Municipal Affairs Bureau of Macao. (Photo/Wang Haolan)
In addition, the implementation of the principle of “one country, two systems” can be seen in this area.
“Here, we have Hong Kong and Macao. They have different systems, separate administrations and separate currencies, but belong to the same country. It’s something you can only see in the Greater Bay Area. Here, we have good quality of life and nice climate. We have one of the most industrialized places in the world,” he said.
A scene of the Yantian Port in Shenzhen.
Guangdong, a manufacturing hub and leading foreign trade player in China, accounts for around 20% of the country’s import and export value. “If we combine the three ports namely Shenzhen Port, Guangzhou Port and Hong Kong Port, which are very close, they would be the world’s largest port for goods,” he said.
Shenzhen is the Silicon Valley of Asia. Many of China’s technology patents are developed in the Greater Bay Area. “There are many, many, many things that make the Greater Bay Area right now the place where the most important things that will shape the future of the world are happening,” Ladreda recounted.
A view of Nanshan, Shenzhen.
For Ladreda and his family, Zhuhai is an ideal place to enjoy family life. “Zhuhai is a city that has been one of ‘China’s Happiest Cities’ for many years. It is a unique and modern city with incredible development. It’s a very, very comfortable city to live in. We are 30 minutes from Hong Kong, 30 minutes from Shenzhen, 10 minutes from Macao, and an hour and a half from Guangzhou. It’s connected to the major players in the economic and technological fields in the world,” he said, adding that his plan is to stay in China.
Víctor Ladreda and his family in Zhuhai. Courtesy of the interviewee.
