China's top award for Beijing Benz CEO

Frank Deiss and his Friendship Award, the highest honor for international experts working in China. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Honoring his years of contribution to China's economy and society, Frank Deiss, president and CEO of Beijing Benz Automotive Co Ltd, has earned the country's highest award for international experts - the Friendship Award.

The 51-year-old German was one of two foreign experts nominated by the Beijing municipal government to win the award as the Chinese government recognized 100 experts from 25 countries in September.

In an interview on Oct 30, Deiss said his company, also known as BBAC, has created about 4,200 new jobs since his appointment in 2011.

"We have over 10,000 people here now and we are growing further," Deiss said.

At BBAC's manufacturing site in Daxing district, a new assembly line is being prepared for local production of the new Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class compact SUV next year.

New welding and assembly shops for the Mercedes-Benz rear wheel architecture plant are coming online for the next generation of Mercedes vehicles. More jobs are set to be provided by the Sino-German joint venture.

"Production capacity is not the bottleneck at all. BBAC can expand if customer demand calls for it." Deiss said.

Daimler AG and its Chinese partner BAIC Motor Corporation Ltd - or BAIC Motor - agreed in March to put 1 billion euros ($794 million) into BBAC by 2015 for further expansion of local car and engine production.

In October, another 1-billion-euro deal was signed between the two shareholders for further localization of compact car models in the future.

As a part of the global production network, BBAC owns the first-ever Daimler engine plant outside Germany for Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. And it has started exporting three locally made engine components back to Germany - crankshafts, cylinder blocks and heads.

"This is proof that BBAC has the world's top-notch quality system. If this was not the case, the engine parts wouldn't be exported back to Germany," said Deiss.

"On quality, we don't compromise," he added.

Commitment to China

The major focus of BBAC is to build vehicles for the Chinese market, Deiss said.

The latest move was to launch the all-new long-wheelbase C-Class tailored for local customers.

"Look into the new welding shop for the all-new long-wheelbase C-Class - you will find exactly the same top-notch high-automation technology applied as any of our plants worldwide," Deiss said.