Cheung Yan, chairlady of Nine Dragons Paper, China, has been named Asian CEO of the year for 2017 by RISI, Boston, Mass., USA. The award will be presented to Yan at RISI's 18th annual Asian Conference at the Langham Shenzhen Hotel in Shenzhen, May 22-24, 2017.

RISI's Asian CEO of the Year Award is nominated by a group of investment analysts, industry consultants, and commentators covering the Asian and global pulp and paper industry. This year marks the second time Yan has been selected for the Asian CEO of the Year award, due to her continued leadership, vision, and strategic expansion. At the conference, she will speak about the Group's consistent success and her anticipations for the future.

Yan is a founder of Nine Dragons Paper. After 20 years of fast and steady development, Nine Dragons Paper Group is now the world's largest recycled-based paper manufacturing group with modern and environmentally friendly management. In 2016, the ND Paper Group recorded sales of RMB 34.9 billion. Its annual production capacity now exceeds 13 million metric tons, with production bases covering the main manufacturing centers in China and parts of Vietnam within the "Belt and Road" region.

The ND Paper Group has built a large and efficient production and sales platform in the Chinese packaging board industry. With economies of scale as well as innovative and efficient internal management, the Group has achieved healthier, more orderly operations and development. Market condition improvements in the Chinese packaging board industry to a certain extent has also contributed to the increase in Nine Dragons' profit margin.

Nine Dragons recently announced that PM 2 at its Vietnam base will commence production by the end of June; and by the end of 2018 new containerboard machines will be added at its four existing production bases in China, namely Quanzhou, Chongqing, Hebei Yongxin ,and Shenyang. The company employs some 16,000 people.