The chairman of Schneider Electric has underscored China's increasingly pivotal role in driving global innovation, citing a combination of talent, a strong ecosystem, competitiveness, and its large scale as key factors behind the country's success.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman and former CEO of the major multinational company, discussed China's strengths in innovation in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sidelines of the two-day China Development Forum which opened in Beijing on Sunday.
"Half of the engineers in the world today are graduating in China. So that tells a lot about the focus that there is on science, and innovation comes a lot from science. I believe in science, I think science is bringing the right solution for the future. So we start with people and people are so important," he said.
He further highlighted China's dense network of companies, which fosters a unique, collaborative ecosystem.
"The second point is ecosystem. You've got such a density of companies who can work together that this density is creating an ecosystem which is difficult to replicate anywhere else," Tricoire said.
Another driving force behind China's innovation surge lies in the dynamics of its private sector, according to the business leader.
"Number three, there is competition, we spoke about that before. China is the most competitive of every country in the world. And that creates emulation effort, hard work, which goes into the sense of more innovation," he said.
"And finally, there is scale. You can test your ideas or your concept on much larger scale than anybody, than in any other place. So all of this makes (me) optimistic about the innovation capability here," he said.
Under the theme "Unleashing Development Momentum for Stable Growth of Global Economy", the China Development forum has attracted over 100 foreign guests, including 86 official representatives of multinational companies from 21 countries.
Schneider Electric chairman highlights factors behind China's strength in innovation
