World Smart Industry Expo 2025 concludes with fruitful results

The World Smart Industry Expo 2025 concluded on Monday in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, yielding fruitful results.

Contracts worth over 200 billion yuan (about 28.05 billion U.S. dollars) were signed during the expo, encompassing 298 major projects in intelligent connected new energy vehicles, electronic information manufacturing, new materials and other fields.

The expo also unveiled over 100 new industry standards, products, and technologies.

Spanning four days from Friday, the event featured over 3,000 innovative exhibits across various sectors, with this year's focus on the themes "AI+" and "Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicles."

Global business leaders gathering in Beijing for the China Development Forum 2026 said that they remain optimistic about China's role as a key driver of growth and are committed to deepening their presence in the Chinese market.

Themed "China in its 15th Five-Year Plan period: advancing high-quality development and creating new opportunities together", the two-day forum, which kicked off on Sunday, highlighted China as a key engine of global development as the country begins its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).

Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, a French energy giant, acknowledged the growing barriers in global energy cooperation, but stressed that both China and Europe share a common path toward green energy.

"We have observed more barriers, in fact, we see a lot of, I would say, non-cooperative attitude, I am still convinced, in particular, in the field of energy. But in fact, both China and Europe have exactly the same strategy, which is going to more green energy, which is a way to combine security with supply and China is leading the way," he said.

Philippe Delorme, president and CEO of KONE Corporation, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, said that Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's visit to China from January 25 to 28 has reinforced trust, mirroring the strong relationships KONE has built with its Chinese partners.

"Prime Minister Orpo went to China to reinforce the trust that has been built over time, which is actually very parallel to the trust that KONE has been building with the China-based ecosystem and its customers," he said.

Judy Marks, CEO and president of American elevator maker Otis emphasized the company's strong commitment to China, highlighting the access and enthusiasm she experiences on every visit.

"Well, every time I come to China, my agenda is packed, and I want it that way. I want to see our colleagues, I want to see our business partners, I want to see government officials. And guess what, in China, every time we have that access. It's always an exciting time in China. We're investing and we're here to stay," she said.

Rogier Janssens, president of Merck China, talked about his professional journey of returning to China, drawn by the country's rapid pace of development and the opportunities he sees unfolding.

"I am not new to China. I'm also not new to Merck. I ran the healthcare business for Merck between '17 and '22 out of Beijing. It's interesting. Actually, at some point in time, I was thinking about after 35 years of working in the pharmaceutical industry, I thought maybe I needed to slow down a little bit and take it easy. Maybe I'd take a job at the headquarters or something like that. But in reality, I thought no. There needs to be a bit more excitement and I'm super excited about what I'm seeing and hearing. I mean the speed of China, the way things are development so rapidly here," he said.

Since its inception in 2000, the China Development Forum has become one of the country's major platforms for dialog among Chinese government officials, global business leaders, international organizations, and scholars.