Global business leaders hail innovation-led collaboration as key to green, digital future

At the 2025 China Enterprise Forum Global Dialogue, global business leaders emphasized that innovation-led collaboration, through joint R and D, green standards, and full-chain decarbonization, is essential for achieving long-term competitiveness in a transforming world economy.

Held on Monday afternoon in Beijing, the dialogue brought together executives and thought leaders from China, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Under the theme "Reshaping Growth Engines: Global Competitiveness Driven by Innovation," the parallel session of the 8th China Enterprise Forum centered on how to accelerate digital and green transformation over the next five years and into the future.

Speakers underscored that cooperation in innovation is no longer optional but fundamental to corporate and national progress. Discussions ranged from decarbonizing entire industrial supply chains to aligning global green standards and co-developing technologies through collaborative platforms.

"We strongly believe that corporate transformation is not a challenge, but is a strategic imperative, essential to deliver affordable, reliable, and progressively lower carbon energy. In the next five years, probably we play the big game of this mixed energy transition and digital revolution," said Gianni Di Giovanni, vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

"I think the main thing is that we shouldn't be isolated. Even our own activity at Siemens Energy is working with clients and suppliers. So when we actually measure how we want to improve, especially the environmental part and emissions, we need to work across upstream and downstream. We want the whole chain to be equally sustainable," said Joris Mazille, managing director of Onshore Wind Field Assets at Siemens Energy China.

Saudi Aramco, one of the world's largest energy producers, also took the stage to highlight the evolving nature of its engagement in China.

"At Saudi Aramco, we have the privilege of working closely with our Chinese partner for the past three decades. And what began as an energy supply partnership has evolved through time to be a dynamic platform for communications, technology development, and also industrial transformation," said Nasser Lasloom, senior vice president of Aramco Asia.

Speakers agreed that global competitiveness in the future economy relies on innovation-driven growth, enabled through openness, shared expertise, and a unified approach to sustainable development.

The 8th China Enterprise Forum, held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday, focused on strengthening strategic resolve and advancing innovation-driven development among Chinese enterprises.

Global business leaders hail innovation-led collaboration as key to green, digital future

Nicaragua's co-foreign minister Valdrack Jaentschke has warned that militarism must never be allowed to rise again, as Japan's recent moves to lift its arms export ban and revise the pacifist Constitution continue to draw international concern.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials, where Japan's Class-A war criminals from World War II were brought to justice.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Valdrack Jaentschke voiced his concern that today's world order is being undermined by interventionism and other challenges.

"It is necessary for us to remember that after the end of World War II, countries worked hard to build a new international order based on international law. However, regrettably, more than 80 years later, we are seeing that this once explored and attempted order is being challenged by interventionism, a confrontational mindset, and tendencies like 'might makes right.' These are precisely the conditions that gave rise to fascism and militarism in the past, which ultimately led to the tragedy of World War II," he said.

He said the international community has a responsibility to pursue a new international order -- one fundamentally grounded in peace.

"Looking back at the history more than eight decades ago and comparing it with today's reality, it is our responsibility to recognize that the world should, and must, build a new international order that is more just, fairer, rooted in international law, based on a logic of mutual benefit and shared success, and fundamentally grounded in peace," said the minister.

"Today, as we revisit the Tokyo Trials, it is meant to remind the world that such a tragedy must never be repeated -- and that we must do everything in our power to prevent it from happening again. We must stop that dark world -- born from militarism, interventionism, and fascism -- from ever returning," he said.

Nicaraguan FM warns of militarism revival