STORY: Turkish young man's stone business in China 
DATELINE: Oct. 13, 2023
LENGTH: 0:01:35
LOCATION: XIAMEN, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Mehmet Kizgin
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MEHMET KIZGIN, Quanzhou Marmara Import & Export Co., Ltd.
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): MEHMET KIZGIN, Quanzhou Marmara Import & Export Co., Ltd.

STORYLINE:

Mehmet Kizgin, a Turkish young man, chose China to pursue his higher education and after graduation from Xiamen University, he set up a stone trading company in Nan'an City, east China's Fujian Province.

When asked why is China, he said "there are many opportunities in China and I think it is worth trying to visit the country."

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MEHMET KIZGIN, Quanzhou Marmara Import & Export Co., Ltd.
"Quanzhou is known as the starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road and is a coastal city. Its clear advantages attracted me to start business here."

The stone industry is one of the leading industries in Nan'an which is under the jurisdiction of the city of Quanzhou.

Nan'an boasts more than 1,700 enterprises in the stone industry, and the stone trade covers more than 130 countries and regions, with an annual turnover of about 20 billion yuan (2.736 billion USD).

Mehmet Kizgin has partly attributed his success in business to China's thriving e-commerce and high-performance products.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): MEHMET KIZGIN, Quanzhou Marmara Import & Export Co., Ltd.
"The internet tremendously benefits us, because we can directly contact with clients without intermediaries. Now everyone can open a live-streaming account on social media platforms to display a variety of stones with different styles and colors. It helps us a lot. Moreover, China's technology in the stone industry. I was impressed by the new machine. By using it, the cost of processing raw materials can be reduced by 13 percent."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Xiamen, China.
(XHTV)