Leading executives from global multinationals who attended the just-concluded China Development Forum (CDF) in Beijing say they are keen to deepen engagement with China and explore further market opportunities in the world's second-largest economy, which they view as being at the forefront of innovation.
Themed "China in its 15th Five-Year Plan Period: Advancing High-Quality Development and Creating New Opportunities Together," the two-day forum, which concluded on Monday, brought together senior global business representatives and scholars to explore shared opportunities emerging from China's pursuit of high-quality growth.
The forum also detailed the vision and direction of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), a key blueprint outlining the country's socioeconomic development goals through to the end of the decade.
Against a backdrop of global economic turbulence and rising geopolitical tensions, global executives are encouraged by China's commitment to opening-up and believe its stable growth offers a strong platform for investment and cooperation.
Many global firms say they are ready to expand their presence in China's vast market, including German multinational Siemens AG which is choosing to launch a range of new products in China and is even hosting a special gathering in Beijing with its "Siemens RXD (Real Meets Digital) Summit" -- which wraps up on Tuesday after bringing together over 1,000 industry leaders, AI innovators and tech experts for the two-day event.
"We are having our first prime Tech Summit, it's a series of summits and we are launching it in China. It's because it happens first in China -- when we bring innovation to the market, it happens first in China. Big names [will be involved in the summit] so these are really super interesting guests and we [will] bring 26 new products to the market," said Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens AG.
French tech firm Schneider Electric is also looking to enhance cooperation, with new facilities breaking ground in the coastal city of Xiamen and in east China's Wuxi, alongside other development projects.
"At the moment we are creating two new factories, one in Xiamen, one in Wuxi. We are ramping up a new research and development center for energy management, energy excellence, energy efficiency, energy digitization in Beijing. Even more important, we are creating new partnerships with Chinese companies to bring the technologies of those companies into the overseas market where Schneider is already well-rooted," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the company's chairman.
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.
Longtime attendees, guided by a belief in long-term investment, have returned with fresh projects and renewed confidence, while newcomers at the event are eager to tap into emerging sectors and evolving market dynamics.
This year saw the heads of 18 multinational corporations joining the event for the first time. Coming from various industries, they revealed plans to not only invest in China but also cooperate more closely with Chinese enterprises to further expand their market share.
"This is actually my first time to be at the CDF in person. There is one topic I'm really very interested in and I think there's a big opportunity and this is around data and AI. We have established an accelerator where we invite domestic startup companies to work together with us on new innovative ideas," said Christoph Franz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Roche Group, a Swiss healthcare multinational.
"So we are actually opening next week our south China headquarters, which helps us to do a couple things. One, get closer to our customer; second, innovate more and really leverage the fantastic ecosystem that exists in Shenzhen, be closer to technology provider in AI, in robotics and stuff like this. And also have better logistics to better serve our customer," said Philippe Delorme, President and CEO of the KONE Corporation, a Finnish engineering firm.
Multinational companies seek to deepen engagement, eye new opportunities in China
Multinational companies seek to deepen engagement, eye new opportunities in China
继续来关注中国发展高层论坛2026年年会。中东局势引发的能源危机也是本届论坛上嘉宾关注的重点。 黄金、原油、美元 在不确定性增加的当下，发生着怎样的变化，来听嘉宾的观点。
周一上午，就在这场围绕“不确定性”展开的专题讨论进行的同时，国际金价延续前几个交易日的颓势，开启了一天的巨幅震荡。中东冲突以来，油价大涨，黄金冲高后走低，资产价格的大幅波动似乎让世界的不确定性得以量化。油价何时回调，黄金的避险属性是否失灵，成为会场内讨论的一大热点。
Global economists and corporate executives at the China Development Forum (CDF) 2026 said that the world's second largest economy remains a predictable force at a time of geopolitical flux and global uncertainty.
Stability, a recurring theme from last year's forum, resonated more strongly during the two-day forum this year which concluded on Monday in Beijing, as the conflict in the Middle East continues to drive international oil and gold price volatility.
As gold prices extended another day of dramatic fluctuation on Monday following several days of decline, forum attendees, including leaders of international organizations, business executives and prominent scholars from around the world, gathered for a pair of symposiums on addressing uncertainty and exploring growth opportunities, as well as on the global low-carbon transition and sustainable development.
They held heated discussions about the energy prices surge rippling across the wider global economy as a result of the Middle East conflict, and the long-term impact of geopolitical tensions on gold, typically a go-to safe-haven in times of uncertainty.
Zhu Min, a member of the Senior Expert Advisory Committee of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, shared his view on the declining investor confidence in the yellow metal, in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
【同期】朱民 中国国际经济交流中心 资深专家委员 其实现在（变）动的是机构投资者对黄金的需求，美元不降息 他们觉得持有黄金的成本过高，就开始离开市场 但从中期或者长期来看，我觉得有几个基本趋势，第一个就是美元还是走弱，美国现在政府把美元武器化，包括关税战，包括战争等等，大家信任下降，但是最根本的是地缘经济的结构变化，整个地缘经济美国的比重在下降，中国和其他全球南方的比重在上升，这个是根本的变化。 "What is actually shifting now is institutional investors' demand for gold. As the U.S. Fed leaves interest rates unchanged, they've felt that the cost of holding gold is too high and started shying away from the market. However, from a medium- to long-term perspective, I believe there are several fundamental trends. First, the U.S. dollar continues to weaken, and the current U.S. government has weaponized the dollar through measures such as tariff wars and armed conflicts, causing everyone's trust in the currency to slip. But the primary factor is the structural shift in the global geopolitical economy, where the share of the United States in the overall geopolitical economic landscape is declining, while the share of China and other Global South countries is rising. This represents a fundamental shift," he said.
朱民表示，黄金仍是当前避险的选择之一，而油价则直接受到战争影响，假如供应链遭受严重破坏，即便战争结束价格回调后仍可能维持在高位。中东冲突对于中国经济几乎没有影响，中国的战略规划提供了稳定的增长预期，也为世界注入确定性。
Zhu thinks gold is still a key safe-haven asset for investors, but expressed his concern over the lasting impact of severely disrupted supply chains on oil prices.
He dismissed the impact of the Middle East conflict on China, as the country has long highlighted the reduction of fossil fuel consumption and development of clean energy in its strategic planning, which he said not only stabilizes growth expectations, but also offers certainty to the world.
记者发现，寻找确定性是许多嘉宾此行最重要的目标之一。在论坛的会场里，即便能源危机阴云仍在，对转型的展望也大过对不确定性的隐忧。
中国在绿色转型上取得的成效，让许多传统能源巨头纷纷跟进，持续加注电力板块。
Foreign academics and executives at this year's forum agreed that the energy crisis has spotlighted the need to transition to renewables, which helps to create a predictable business environment, and said China's green transformation achievements offer opportunities for cooperation to multinationals in the global energy sector.
【同期】伊恩·戈尔丁 牛津大学教授 "What business, what investment, likes is a predictable world, to make long-term decisions, to decide where to put your money and lack of predictability, I think, leads to slower growth," Ian Goldin, a professor at the University of Oxford, told CCTV.
【同期】杰弗里·萨克斯 哥伦比亚大学教授 对任何国家都有一个启示，那就是要投资风能、太阳能、氢能，这才是自己的能源 许多国家来到中国，他们希望扩大可再生能源的规模，而中国的经验可以帮助大家采取更低成本的方式生产，战争将会推动能源转型。 "It is a signal to any country: invest in wind power, invest in solar power, invest in hydropower. It's your own energy. Countries are going to come to China and say, 'We want to scale up our renewable energy and we want you to help us to do this in a low-cost way.' So, in this sense, the war will be a spur to the energy transformation," said Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at the Columbia University.
Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French energy and petroleum company TotalEnergies, told CCTV that his company continues to seek business partnerships with China, whose world-leading electricity generation capacity, fueled by a renewables boom, will drive its AI-powered industrial transformation.
【同期】潘彦磊 道达尔能源董事长兼首席执行官 TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne "We are an oil, gas company. We invest more and more in electricity, 4 billion dollars per year, like China does. I think in all the scenarios we need more electricity. We also need more electricity because of data centers, AI revolution," he said.
China's growth certainty, stable business environment win praise at development forum
