Country Garden’s sales centre closure is temporary

Prospects look at a model of the development at the Country Gardens' Forest City showroom in Johor Bahru, Malaysia February 21, 2017. Picture taken February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

JOHOR BARU: Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd says the recent closure of its sales centres in China is temporary and in line with the shift in its sales and marketing efforts.

Chief of Strategy Yu Runze in a press statement pointed out that the shift in the sales and marketing started early this year.

“It is not a knee-jerk reaction to Chinese government’s policy implementation,” he said.

Runze said that the company – the master developer of the US$100bil (RM445bil) Forest City in Johor - always planned to sell beyond China and had therefore chosen to bring those plans forward this year.

He said Country Garden would be taking a holistic approach to its sales and marketing initiatives and look to present an overview of its projects in China and beyond, for instance its mixed-used development project in Hainan and Forest City.

“This will also allow us to sell to foreigners. As such, we had to close our centres to refurbish our sales galleries, upgrade our marketing materials and retrain our professionals,’’ added Runze.

He said with the continued opening of the Chinese economy and the globalisation of Chinese companies, there was an increased demand for cross-border trade settlement in yuan.

“We believe that the Chinese government will approach the matter in a fair and pragmatic manner that will benefit all,” said Runze.

* For the earlier article, see Country Garden shuts China showrooms amid tighter FX controls