From Global Times July 19, 2012

Global Times – The 2012 Fortune Global 500 list was released on July 9 and five privately-run Chinese corporations are contained. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, one of China’s fastest growing automakers, is ranked number 475 increasing from 688 last year with its revenues of $23.36 billion (including Volvo’s 2011 revenues).

Yang Xueliang, Geely’s chief public relation officer announced the news on Weibo and texted to the Group’s Chairman Li Shufu, who seemed not that surprised at the result for he might have expected this long before.

Since the acquisition of the Swedish luxury car brand Volvo in 2010, Li had set breaking into the Global 500 as his next goal. The automaker made the goal part of a development plan outlined in the beginning of 2011.

Today, the goal has achieved and Li surprises the Chinese auto industry with his actions. Starting as a low-end private company, Geely has evolved into one of the most successful homegrown car makers. Led by him, the company spent only 25 years entering the global market from the countryside of Zhejiang, a southeast coastal province of China.

“Being ranked among the Global 500 is a milestone in the history of Geely and means the global recognition of the company’s development model based on technological innovation.” said Yang, who reckoned the result as a new starting point that will lead Geely to go farther as a global player and thought this is expected to encourage the advance of China’s manufacturing sector.

Li Shufu, who had the bold dream of making Geely one of the top 500 with international competitiveness and influence, fueled the achievement.

“He says ‘Why not’ while the rest of the world is asking ‘why’,” says Bill Russo, former head of Chrysler in China when talking about Geely’s chairman. “He is the kind of story that exists in China today, that existed in the west 100 years ago”.