Editor's Note: Despite global uncertainties and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, China is on track to embrace the 'dual circulation' development pattern as it enters the 14th Five-Year Plan period in 2021, which also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

China Daily spoke to senior executives from multinational corporations to get their views on the overall macroeconomic environment, potential business opportunities, and how China can play a key role in shaping the trajectory of global growth.

Q1: How important has the China operations been in your overall performance last year?

Q2: China's new "dual-circulation" development pattern emphasizes on boosting domestic demand and further opening up the domestic market. How will your company utilize this policy to expand your presence and investment in China?

Q3: Which policy aspect in the government's 'Six Safeguards and Six Priorities' directive has emerged as most conducive to your development in China amid the global economic uncertainties?

Q4: What are your views on China's highly centralized but people-oriented economic development model? Do you think China's policies to quickly and effectively restore business activities and safeguard people's livelihood have helped your business recovery in China and contributed to the recovery of the global economy and industrial chain?

Q5: What's your take on Beijing's stance that China has entered a 'new development stage'? How would such a proposition bring changes to your China strategy?

Q6: How does China fit into your overall business strategy in the coming years? What role do you expect China to play in driving the world economy?

Q7: What aspects of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and the country's 2035 long-term development goal are you most looking forward to, and how will your company adapt its strategy according to the country's future growth paradigm?

Wei Jiang, president of Bayer Group Greater China.

A1: While 2020 has been an unprecedented year, with numerous business challenges brought by the pandemic, our organizations – especially production facilities – have been operating largely uninterrupted as we continue our investment and cooperation in China.

From the beginning of the pandemic, we put our employees' health and safety as our top priority. Then we ensured business continuity that allowed us to provide patients, consumers and farmers with the products that they urgently needed.

A2: The Chinese leadership has on many occasions stressed that dual circulation is by no means a closed domestic loop, and reaffirmed that opening-up is still a fundamental national policy.

Bayer is inspired by these supportive messages. With this growth model and our corporate vision of "Health for All, Hunger for None", Bayer will continue to leverage our expertise in healthcare and agriculture, while improving Chinese people's accessibility to our high-quality products and solutions.

A3: In the past year, the government has attached great importance to stabilizing foreign investment and trade, and has implemented several policies to support foreign enterprises as they resume work and production. Bayer is extremely grateful for the efforts made by the central and local governments to boost the economy, and to help enterprises navigate emerging challenges.

A4: Due to China's decisive and powerful prevention and control measures, as well as the unremitting efforts of its people, China has achieved strategic success in pandemic control, with all aspects of society gradually returning to normal. The stable development of Chinese society guarantees Bayer's production and operation activities in the market, and has also increased our confidence and determination to further invest.

A5: The transition from rapid growth to high-quality development is an epoch-level event in China's long economic history. In this new development stage, medical care and agriculture will remain critically important. Bayer will leverage its accumulated experience in China and its global innovation resources to continue to meet its increasing and evolving needs in healthcare and food supply.

A6: Bayer is highly appreciative of the Chinese government's determination to deepen reform and open up. As the entire world faces a huge public health crisis, open cooperation is particularly important to every country's success. Bayer is very pleased to see how China continues to build a market-oriented and legalized international business environment, and treats all types of companies equally – both domestic and foreign-owned.

Bayer is strongly positioned to be a valuable partner in China's development. For the next five-year plan, and even into the more distant future, Bayer looks forward to making a greater impact on China's next-stage goals, its new journey to fully build a modern socialist country, and shared success for both the country and Bayer.

A7: As a life sciences company, Bayer's purpose of "Science for a Better Life" and its vision of "Health for All, Hunger for None" are strategically aligned with China's national goals of Healthy China 2030 and building a comprehensively well-off society.

Bayer is committed to China, will remain in China and will continue to invest in China.

Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of Tapestry Inc.

A1: As one of the world's largest consumer markets, the strong resilience, vitality and growth of China's economy emerging from the pandemic has accelerated the recovery of our operations globally.

In the first quarter of the 2021 fiscal year (ended September 2020), the strong growth of the Chinese market was an important driving force behind the significant sequential improvement in our topline trends. Our sales in China grew at a double-digit rate on a year-on-year basis with continued strong performance across our e-commerce channels resulting in triple-digit online growth.

We are now more confident than ever in the growth potential of the Chinese market.

A2: Under the dual-circulation pattern, China's increasingly open market has created an excellent business environment for investment and development for foreign companies such as ours. It also encourages us to accelerate the China localization process, actively promote consumer upgrades and digital innovation, and embrace the change and development, thereby continuously creating value.

We have also observed a very important trend in China: the rising number of people in the middle-class as well as the rapid development in the nation's lower-tier cities. We will also further accelerate the planning and investment in regional markets as we grow our distribution network. The second- and third-tier cities in particular hold great potential.

A3: China's six safeguards and six priorities laid the foundation for the high-quality development of China's economy. Among them, a series of "stabilizing foreign trade, investment" policies and measures have further optimized the business environment and strengthened our confidence in continuously growing the Chinese market.

A4: China's people-oriented economic development model is now more focused on "quality" growth that is highly inclusive, bringing tangible benefits and providing incremental certainty and confidence to the market.

Companies in China, including Tapestry, have gained much from it, such as confidence to quickly resume normal operations, and excellent experience and learning to bring to our retail operations in other countries and regions

Given the unique and challenging year, the strong resilience and growth of the Chinese economy was an important factor in the accelerated recovery of the global industry.

A5: China's new development stage will create more opportunities for foreign companies such as Tapestry. High-quality growth is our focus now, and it forms the core pillars of our "Acceleration Program": Sharpening our focus on the consumer; leveraging data and leading with a digital-first mindset; transforming into a leaner and more responsive organization.

A6: The China market is extremely important to Tapestry. When we look at how far we've come in China, we feel we are only beginning to realize its potential and want to participate in the market's growth.

China is not only a significant market for Tapestry, but also a valuable source of inspiration. Chinese customers are rapidly evolving in their journey of self-discovery and are now driving fashion innovation globally. They are calling for a quality lifestyle with more personalized products and services that add value and fashion relevance to their life. We see tremendous potential for our brands in China. We are committed to the long-term development of this market.

One example of this is the way in which we partner with local designers. In Coach's runway show in December 2018, we had collaborated with four Chinese artists to reinterpret the codes of Coach. This China Collective was not only a huge success in China but around the world. In June this year, we further collaborated with the design talents of Shanghai Donghua Universities and the collection was also very well received.

We will continue to leverage our global platform to bring Chinese design to the world fashion industry.

We also believe that China will play an important role as a growth driver and stabilizer in the world economy.

The efficiency of the supply system, the tremendous consumption potential, and digital infrastructure and innovation with 5G, data centers and internet of things position China as an important hub in the global industrial chain, linking the world and encouraging a global economy. While the pandemic adversely affected the economy, production resumed and recovery began quickly in China, helping to support the stability of the global economy.

A7: The fundamental goal emphasized in China's the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the country's 2035 long-term development plan is to meet the needs of and provide a better life for the Chinese people. This is consistent with our commitment to the Chinese market, and we will work to meet Chinese consumers' high expectations for a better and more personalized lifestyle.

By Zheng Yiran, Wang Zhuoqiong, He Wei, Zhong Nan, Liu Zhihua and Cheng Yu