Li Shufu, chairman of the board at Volvo Car Corporation, prepares to sit behind the wheel for a trial run as Stefan Jacoby, Volvo's president and CEO, watches.

Only 25 years ago, Li Shufu borrowed money to start a company to make refrigerators. Eight years later, in 1994, Li began making motorcycles; four years later, his company started making small vans.

That was the beginnings of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which received State approval to make automobiles in 2001, the year China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Today, Geely is the second-largest private automobile manufacturer in China.

Li, who is chairman of Geely, said that in the past decade, the company had become a global enterprise, "meeting the demand and applying the resources all over the world from a small local factory, which I've never imagined can come true".

Geely has also been recognized as one of the companies with the fastest growth in the Chinese automotive industry, all built on careful planning and innovation.

It is also the only Chinese car manufacturer to have developed a range of engines, including eight between 1 liter and 1.8 liters, to power manual and automatic transmissions. The company has independent research and development in vehicles, engines and transmissions, as well as in hybrid technologies.

"We've been offered great opportunities to design and produce cars by ourselves, selling products in the domestic and global market after China became a member of the WTO," Li said.

In May 2007, Li announced the company would stop producing a few old series of cars, and would launch three models of Geely cars: Free Cruiser, Jingang and Vision a year later.

"Due to successful reforms on the standards and technologies applied in the products, we've managed to tackle the financial crisis that came after our transformation in 2008," Li said.

This resulted in a 48-percent increase in sales in 2009. In 2010, the company sold 415,000 automobiles to the world badged as Geely.

The launch of Geely Panda, with emphasis on safety and being environmentally friendly with low carbon emissions as key features, also showed the company stepping responsibly onto the world stage.

"As one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rapid developing automobile industry in China after opening up and entering the WTO, Geely was offered the chance to obtain advanced green technologies by working with international automobile brands," Li said.

In March last year, Geely signed a deal worth $1.8 billion to buy the Volvo brand from US manufacturer Ford Motor Company, the largest foreign purchase by a Chinese car maker.

"The acquisition of Volvo signified that Geely finally has been able to add its own innovative ideas and elements to Volvo, the high-end automobile brand's advanced management philosophy to reach the cultural integration in car industry," said Li.

Geely aims to continue increasing its international presence over the next five years, with a goal to build 15 production bases worldwide and sell two-thirds of its cars outside China.

In addition, Geely plans to develop over the next five years several new models, all compliant with international emissions requirements and suitable for sale overseas, and all of which will be designed with domestic and international markets in mind.

"By making more innovations to have our own car design, we aim to release eight series of gasoline and diesel engines as well as seven series of manual and automatic transmissions," said Li.

As a leader in the Chinese automobile industry over the past decade, Geely, a privately-owned company, is willing to move to be a global enterprise with a more mature corporate culture.

"Encouraged by the central government and with the well-developed automobile industry in China, Geely is lucky to have the unique opportunity of leading other Chinese private car manufacturers to the world, step by step," Li said.