Foreign firms to see broader market access

A1 The Chinese people lead much better lives today than 70 years ago, and on average they live much longer. This, to me, is the biggest achievement since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Merck, as a company from Germany, is proud to have played a part in this over the decades. For example, we operate a modern pharmaceutical factory in Nantong, Jiangsu province, which produces drugs on China's Essential Drug List. They are quite affordable. It is our way to support the Chinese government in further prolonging and improving the lives of its citizens.

A2 We are a vibrant science and technology company, strong in life science and performance materials, in addition to healthcare.

We work with drug manufacturers to help bring new drugs to the market faster. In 2017, we launched an end-to-end bio development center in Shanghai. It reinforces our position as the premier supplier of all process development and clinical stage manufacturing solutions, materials and services needed for the production of biologics.

A3 I understand that stronger protection of intellectual property rights in China is one of the highlights of the Foreign Investment Law. As a science and technology company, Merck is holding more than 2,000 patents with relevance for the production of displays alone. Creating a positive and holistic intellectual property ecosystem, including patent review and enforcement, will stimulate innovation. Merck is pleased to see great progress in these areas.

All in all, the law is meant to be a unified law to provide stronger legal protection for foreign investors in China, which should increase their confidence in the long run.

A4 High quality "Made in China" means a lot to us. In 2017 alone, we placed 1.4 billion euros ($1.59 billion) worth of orders with Chinese suppliers.

At Merck, quality is embedded in everything we do. We have the latest quality systems in our sites, such as the Nantong pharmaceuticals manufacturing and Shanghai display materials manufacturing sites, bringing consistent quality medicines and reliable electronics and display materials to customers.

I know China is prioritizing quality. In the healthcare sector, for example, the country is conducting bio equivalence tests for generic equivalence and has increased focus on inspections.

In our view, high-quality manufacturing needs both a robust quality system and quality "culture", which could go hand in hand for continuous improvement.

A5 Merck has direct dialogues with a number of local governments in China, because we have manufacturing, R&D and innovation sites in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Nantong, Wuxi and Guangzhou. We appreciate such strong support from local governments for our business development. These dialogues are helpful for us, and we would like to have more of them.