Big name global manufacturers keen on 2023

Q5 As China continues to pursue high-quality development along a Chinese path to modernization, what is your vision for your company's business in the country? What business opportunities do you foresee emerging as part of this process?

DING: China's strong commitments to green and high-quality development bring us more opportunities. We are excited about opportunities to support China's digital upgrade and green transition by working closely with government bodies, enterprises and research institutes. Today in China, for example, our adhesives and films with low volatile organic compound emissions are being used to build more efficient high-speed and subway trains — with many more opportunities in front of us. China is a vital market for 3M.

As we have done for decades, we will continue to expand our capabilities and support the evolution of the Chinese economy into the future.

YU: China's pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is a major milestone in the fight against global climate change and a key element in the country's pursuit of high-quality development. Honeywell is uniquely positioned to shape a more sustainable future by continuously developing sustainable technologies that provide our Chinese customers with ready-now solutions to meet their energy and environmental needs. In addition, Honeywell has been continuously expanding its presence, especially in emerging markets in central and western China, which represent one of the country's growth engines in the next decades.

Heinricht: We believe Schott can still make contributions to technological progress and economic growth in China, especially in high-tech sectors such as microchip production, space and astronomy, medical and life sciences, among many others. In the past, foreign investments in China used to focus on low-cost manufacturing, but now foreign and Chinese partners work together on high value-added products and services. Such collaborations will provide a strong impetus for China's long-term growth.

Besides technological progress, we also aim to contribute to China's climate goals. At Schott, we have one of the most ambitious goals in the specialty glass industry — to become carbon neutral by 2030. We switched to using renewable energy resources to cover our global electricity needs in 2022, which has helped us reduce our carbon footprint by 60 percent.

ZHANG: China has always been an active player in practicing sustainable development and has put forward its carbon peak and neutrality goals. With the upgrading of industries and the introduction of advanced technologies including digitalization, virtual twins, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the challenges or changes faced by enterprises in the process of achieving carbon neutrality also bring new opportunities for their development over the long run.

Dassault Systemes promises to achieve net zero emissions by 2040 and help achieve global sustainable development with virtual twins. In addition to integrating sustainability capabilities into all our operations, we are also providing software technology to our customers to enable and support their transformation to zero carbon emissions.

HOMMA: Since 1978, Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic, promised to provide assistance to China's modernization drive. Panasonic has always carried out its business with the original intention of "contributing to China's modernization".The harmonious coexistence with nature, the target of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, as well as improving housing, developing new energy vehicles and elder care services proposed by the Central Economic Work Conference are highly consistent with Panasonic's key business layout in China.