The ballpoint pens provided to all heads of state at the BRICS summit are made by the Beifa Group in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Beifa Group, China's leading stationery enterprise and largest pen exporter located in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, won the bid to design and produce the ballpoint pens provided to all heads and ministers of state and reporters who attended the recent 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen.

"These three pens are 100 per cent made-in-China," said Qiu Zhiming, president of Beifa Group. "They reflect the best craftsmanship of made-in-China pens."

The ballpoint pen provided to all heads of state is made up of 23 parts, 18 of which are metal. The decorative parts are all plated with 20 carat gold. With a black covering , the pen's design features sea elements reflecting the host city of Xiamen.

"Beifa devotes itself to making good pens," Qiu said. "The black decorative logo part requires seven processes which take over 50 hours' work per part to achieve that special appearance.”

A cultural performance was staged at the three-day summit on Sept 4 at the Minnan Theater, which was built by Zhejiang Dafeng Group.

The whole show reflected the theme of BRICS and local cultural characteristics, combining modern audio-visual techniques with Western art elements.

Dafeng managed the key professional equipment and projects for several venues at the summit, including Xiamen's international conference and exposition center, the Minnan Theater and the Haicang water show.

"As an experimental city of the 'Made in China 2025' project, Ningbo chose Beifa to be the leading stationery enterprise because of its craftsmen's spirit," said an insider from China's stationery industry.