CEOs optimistic as Davos convenes

Kokubo Kenichi, vice-president and executive officer of Hitachi Ltd, chairman of Hitachi (China) Ltd.

A1 I don't think we have anything serious to worry about as the Chinese government is carrying out a series of guiding policies to promote the real economy. The share price has gradually gone up. The yuan has entered a slowly depreciating period after some control measures were adopted. Although the investment of some manufacturing is decreasing, retail performs very well, especially online shopping, which has been growing by 20 to 30 percent annually.

A2 We will provide IT solutions to help improve operational efficiency and service in Chinese hospitals. China will strengthen environmental protection, so the electric vehicle will develop rapidly. As we have products for motors and frequency converters, we hope to expand in the related business in the electric vehicles sector. We have embarked on cloud-based design, technology and purchasing to realize cloud-based management.

A3 In the 2015 fiscal year, we had more than 40,000 employees to run 180 subsidiaries in China. The Chinese market contributed 11 percent of the group's overall sales with 1.05 trillion yen ($8.9 billion). We hope to lift the revenue here to 1.1 trillion yen in FY2018 by focusing on manufacturing and social innovations that align with China's development. It means that from 2016 to 2018, the annual compound growth rate of sales will be 10.5 percent in China.

A4 We will continue to support sustainable development and improve quality of life for people in China through social innovation.

A5 We have to expand the business to some new fields to adapt to the change in China. This country is no longer just a manufacturing base with low cost. It has become an enormous market where we can make a profit as there are a lot of wealthy people. In the past we had core businesses such as elevator, construction machinery, high-speed railway and automatic teller machines. To comply with the digital wave in China, we will transform from a product-based provider to a solution-based provider in the future.