Driving consumption through innovation

Editor's Note: As China steps up efforts to boost domestic demand and drive consumption-led growth, multinational corporations are uniquely positioned to seize the opportunities presented by this transformative period. China Daily examines how these companies are aligning with China's new round of high-standard opening-up policies, embracing emerging tech innovation trends, and expanding their presence in a market that increasingly values high-quality development and upgraded consumption.

Q1 Driving domestic consumption is a top priority for China's economic growth this year. With the country placing greater emphasis on consumption-led development, how is your company adapting its products, services, or localization strategies to meet evolving domestic demand and shifting consumer preferences?

HOMMA: Panasonic Group established its Northeast Asia company in China in 2019 to achieve "local decision-making for Chinese operations". We have basically realized the localization from research and development to production and sales in products such as home appliances and residential equipment in the Chinese market.

In the field of product innovation, Panasonic has accelerated the iteration and upgrade of intelligent products and services. On the one hand, we have launched youthful products precisely targeting the young consumer group. On the other hand, we have created high value-added products to meet the demands of people's pursuit of high-quality lifestyles. Simultaneously, leveraging the integration advantages of home appliances and residential equipment, Panasonic is building intelligent and healthy living spaces, contributing to the construction of safe, comfortable, green and smart homes, as well as the renovation of old houses.

SHIH: Rockwell Automation has noticed significant potential in China's consumption-led development. The Chinese market's focus on boosting domestic consumption through policies such as enhancing the supply side will create new market opportunities. Rockwell aims to drive supply by generating new demand and we are eager to create new demand through innovations and cross-border collaboration with our customers and partners across the entire industrial chain.

Rockwell has expanded our capabilities in addressing industrial challenges to handle social challenges as many of those need to be solved by leveraging the industrial ecosystem.

For example, Rockwell is working on technology that provides at least 50 percent more parking space than traditional vertical parking solutions, which could help drive parking construction and potentially boost vehicle consumption.

Our innovative solutions can play a crucial role in helping Chinese manufacturers upgrade their capabilities, better meet market demand and generate a consumption-driven momentum for the economy.

ZHU: Domestic consumption has been and always will be a key pillar of the Chinese economy. To adapt to the pace of change in the consumer sector, people's longing for good lifestyles becomes an anchor point for future innovation in a time of rapid technological advances.

As brands adapt their strategies to meet evolving customer needs and create meaningful connections, it's imperative to create beacons of trust in communications, commerce, products and services. We will work with them to forecast the changing dynamics between technology and users, establish guardrails of technology usage, and align with people's growing desire for more immersive and authentic experiences.

OZAWA: China's economic development creates both challenges and opportunities. We see great potential from industrial upgrading and emerging sectors, and different industries are showing distinct development trends. From the perspective of consumer demand, there has been rapid development in areas such as travel, social media and entertainment. Canon has noted that these market changes have driven increased demand for imaging products. In the past two years, the Chinese camera market has grown by more than 20 percent annually, which is the fastest in the world.

China has about 300 million Generation Z consumers. They prefer using imaging products for photography and video creation. In response, Canon has launched more affordable products with competitive prices, enhanced features and designs to attract young customers.

Canon fully supports China's efforts to boost domestic consumption. With a growing market and government support, we have seized many new opportunities. The imaging market is thriving. We're very optimistic about the future and believe that a new golden age for the camera market is coming soon.