Int'l executives praise China's innovation-friendly business environment

Executives of multinational companies attending the ongoing China Development Forum 2025 lauded China’s innovation environment, highlighting the country’s expanding research and development efforts as a key driver of their business growth.

The China Development Forum 2025 is taking place in Beijing under the theme "Unleashing Development Momentum for Stable Growth of the Global Economy." The high-profile event has brought together 86 official delegates from multinational companies across 21 countries -- a record high.

In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the forum on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized advancing scientific and technological innovation to power economic growth.

Speaking with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Joe Bao, executive vice president of Finland-based elevator giant KONE Corporation, commended China’s innovation landscape -- particularly its AI-led advancements in the industry.

"China is also our largest overseas R and D base. So as we talk about innovation, as we talk about AI-led innovation for the elevator industry, we're really focused on innovation on a few different areas. The first, we've launched our best-in-class, digitally connected elevators. And the second is we're really looking at AI to power our innovation, specifically around predictive maintenance. So before problems arise, we're able to find out and be able to solve them, really helping our users have a seamless experience using our elevators and escalators," he said.

Renee Wang, president of Germany-based auto supplier ZF Group (China), said the company is benefiting from production automation driven by innovation.

"In this market, we have enjoyed the benefit for a lot of automation processes. You can see in our plants, we have a lot of robots, a lot of automation process and fully digitalized in many areas. We really think that we need to continue on investing in those areas to try to really make our company to be more competitive," she said.

The forum is taking place from March 23 to 24.

Int'l executives praise China's innovation-friendly business environment

U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday as climbing U.S. Treasury yields continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 322.24 points, or 0.65 percent, to 49,363.88. The The Standard and Poor's 500 sank 49.44 points, or 0.67 percent, to 7,353.61, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index shed 220.03 points, or 0.84 percent, to close at 25,870.71.

A primary source of downward pressure came from the fixed-income market. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed back above 4.6 percent, while the 30-year Treasury yield nearly touched 5.2 percent, marking its highest level in nearly 19 years.

The high-yield environment acted as a drag on high-valuation growth sectors, which are particularly sensitive to elevated interest rates. Six of the 11 primary The Standard and Poor's 500 sectors closed in negative territory, with materials and communication services leading the declines by dropping 2.27 percent and 1.58 percent, respectively. In contrast, the healthcare sector gained 1.09 percent and the energy sector advanced 1.03 percent.

Market participants are also focusing on Wednesday's upcoming after-hours earnings release from Nvidia.

U.S. stocks close lower amid rising yields