French corporate leaders appreciate innovation, opening up of Chinese market

The French corporate leaders attending the ongoing 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE) said they are enthusiastic about investing in the increasingly innovative Chinese market and they hope the two countries will share a greater future as China keeps expanding opening up.

France as one of the guests of honor of this year's CIIE has brought 19 companies to the expo held in Shanghai.

The attending French companies said they expect this event will help promote French technologies and manufacturing goods to the world and also help strengthen their cooperation with the Chinese counterparts.

"China also invests in the innovations. I mean innovation is very active. So, we cooperate with government, of course, in China. We also cooperate with private companies. We have a lot of joint ventures for instance in China. I'm sure we have to find a win-win cooperation," said Ludovic Weber, APAC CEO of Saint-Gobain, a material and solution provider.

Denis Vergneau, general manager of SINODIS, said the French dessert company is increasing its investment in China and hopes to strengthen cooperation as well.

"We are investing in people, investing in plans, investing in products, investing in innovation to better collaborate, to better share, to better exchange," he said.

As China keeps opening its market to the world, attending French companies said they believe the two countries will have a better future as they march hand in hand.

"I was as usual amazed by the collective energy and I really hope and I really believe. This is going to drive our future together," said Eric Vallat, CEO of Remy Cointreau, a spirit company.

"Everything China can do to open up is very positive. The more China can open the doors the better it is. So, we are very confident about the future," said Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman of Board of Directors of L'Oreal.

The 6-day event, which will close on Sunday, has seen fruitful results, with nearly 600 deals secured, over 400 new product debuts, and 80 loyal exhibitors signing up for next year's event.

French corporate leaders appreciate innovation, opening up of Chinese market

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight