Global business leaders eager to expand research, increase investment in China

China

Global business leaders eager to expand research, increase investment in China

2025-03-25 09:17 Last Updated At：16:17

Global business leaders expressed their enthusiasm for expanding research and increasing investment in China at the China Development Forum 2025.

Themed "Unleashing Development Momentum for Stable Growth of Global Economy", the two-day forum, which brought together 86 official delegates from multinational companies from 21 countries, concluded on Monday in Beijing.

The executives attending the forum are keenly interested in China's economic dynamics and development strategies, with many arriving early to gain deeper insights into China's economic policies and technological progress.

During interviews with China Central Television (CCTV), the business leaders highlighted the buzzwords in China's development.

"That's a trade-in program, and I think that's a good sponsorship for consumption," said Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, a German multinational engineering and technology company.

"We actually have strong partnerships with DeepSeek," said Michael Nelson, president and CEO of Amway, an American company that sells health, beauty and home care products.

"New quality productive forces are really the future of China," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO and chairman of the multinational electricity company Schneider Electric.

As the business leaders seek to increase presence in the country's vast market, they specified the regions where they aim to boost their investment in China.

"For us the opportunity is to penetrate all the cities," said Anil Wadhwani, CEO of Prudential plc, a British-domiciled multinational insurance and asset management company.

"We are opening up an organic farm in Sichuan Province, and so we will have a groundbreaking of that in the next several months," said Nelson.

"The places where we invest are the places where we do R and D, where we do manufacturing," said Tricoire.

"We need icy conditions for driving on ice, so we have to be in the north, right? Wuxi businesses, in Taicang, Suzhou, in Chongqing, in many areas we build up new businesses," said Hartung.

The business leaders also expressed their aspirations to diversify their portfolio in China, actively seeking out new avenues for growth and opportunity.

"And China needs more consumption. We are increasing our lineup for the home appliances," said Hartung.

"We continue to look at anti-aging products, we continue to invest into research and development capabilities," said Nelson. "We are developing with China green hydrogen. We want to develop the supply chain of desalination in China," said Mohammed Abunayyan, chairman of the board of ACWA Power, a Saudi Arabian company on power generation and desalinated water production.

International media visit mudslide-hit Gyirong Port

International media on Saturday and Sunday visited the core disaster area of mudslide-hit Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

The reporters from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil among other countries and regions visited the area and learned about the disaster situation, ongoing rescue operations, and progress in recovery and reconstruction.

"China has this particular the capacity to address this kind of crisis. You have thousands of workers trained for this and you have machines made for this kind of efforts. And of course, our heart goes to them for the kind of work they are putting," said KJM Varma Mokanda, a reporter from Press Trust of India.

The mudslide, triggered by a high-altitude glacier collapse in Nepal on Aug 26, had left 43 people dead and 519 others missing at the border port as of 18:00 Saturday, the emergency response and rescue headquarters told a press conference on Sunday.

As of 18:00 Saturday, more than 2,500 people and over 500 vehicles had been deployed for the rescue, and more than 1,000 flights of drones had air-dropped 5.43 tons of supplies, officials said at the press conference.