My name is Mustafa Umar Riaz, 38 years old and currently working as the Deputy General Manager of the Investment and M&A Department of China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Limited (CSAIL) with experience in the development process of private power projects, project acquisition, concession agreement negotiation, financing closure, commercial operation and project operation management. While working with CSAIL, I have further expanded my business capabilities and have contributed to the development of CTGI's hydropower projects in Pakistan under CPEC and the globalization of its international business.

I am honoured for awarded as "Outstanding Contributors" for the 10th anniversary of CTGI and feel proud to be part of this family community and the success of the CTGI which is spread over a decade and also thankful to CTGI for believing and acknowledging the philosophy of innovation, integration and mutual development, the inclusion of local communities, expertise, contractors and human resource in line with China’s initiative of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future.

When I was offered an opportunity in CSAIL, I took this opportunity so that I could further challenge and improve my skills, develop my understanding of the International business and future working opportunities available around the globe. Those mentioned factors are available under the umbrella of CTG, which is helping me in achieving my personal goals and also has provoked me to get out of my comfort zone as “If the going seems easy, you are going downhill”. Being working with CTGI, I feel satisfied as I have followed my passion for working in the World’s largest renewable company, exploring and interacting with various diversified cultures around the Globe and making small contributions to create a win-win situation to ensure a bright future for our generation.

CTGI provides an opportunity to explore and develop a unified platform based on full use of experiences in both international and domestic markets, through cultural exchange and integration, to enhance mutual understanding resulting in an innovative pattern of capital inflows, talent pools, and technology databases.

In terms of its Business Philosophy, I have learnt that CTGI is committed to integrating the corporate values with social ethics, actively promoting the social and economic development of the community where its projects are located, protecting the local environment and biodiversity, promoting diversified integration, ensuring the occupational health and safety of its employees and abiding by laws and regulations. In addition, while working in Investment and M&A Department, I have experienced that CTGI also aims to steadily improve its corporate governance, effectively control risks, continuously increase its corporate value, proactively look for market development opportunities and constantly boost its development in an all-round, long-term and sustainable manner.

Moreover, one of the key contributors to the successful implementation of the CTGI’s vision is to deeply understand the cultural diversity for better managing the teams by keenly observing the cultural differences and enhance their learning from the social environment. This was ensured with better awareness of the Cultural matters and effective communication with teams. In addition, by combining synergies, the positive contributions from each culturally diversified team member have contributed to minimizing the communication gap and this partnership has ensured positive results for further expanding the Renewable platform in the Region.

Since working with my Chinese colleagues during the last six (6), I have gathered that we have a lot of social & cultural similarities like (a) social values where family always comes first (b) have a tradition of hospitality to visitors (c) respect for elders and believe in the extended family system (d) during Chinese the New Year, Chinese elders give money or (Lai-See) to young kids. I found this interesting since after Ramadan is over we have a Muslim/Pakistani holiday (Eid), where we do the same thing, it’s not in red-packets but the concept is the same.

I believe that Companies are like families. We build them with our whole heart, put our blood and sweat with only one purpose, to accomplish it, it is to develop and flourish. In a family, we take care of each other's well-being and make sure that everything goes smoothly. Similarly, we are all a family. Here, we all take care of each other, take care of the responsibilities we have, so that we can all make our dream come true. The dream of taking our company into the list of the best companies in the World, the dream of making it a company known for its contributions towards sustainable development of the countries. At the moment of the 10th anniversary, I pray that CTGI achieves new benchmarks in the industry and bigger dreams through combining synergies of the diversified teams around the World.

The dedication of this award, I would like to extend to my family. I am what I am today because of the efforts of my family. Furthermore, my parents left no stone unturned in providing me with the necessary resources in life. Most noteworthy, I can never pay back what they did for me.

My seniors have a major role in my success. They had a profound role in my skill development. Moreover, their training will come in handy in different stages of my career.

This award will always be dear to me. It will always be a reminder of the hard work that we all have put into these projects. Moreover, this award will only motivate me to achieve more success in the future and also compel me to strive to ensure that CTGI’s Projects in Region are a true reflection of the CTG's vision for developing clean and sustainable energy for the future.