Editor's Note: Amid challenges including geopolitical tensions and the tightening policies by major central banks, the focus has been on how the two sessions－the annual sittings of China's national legislature and top political advisory body－map out this year's policy agenda to navigate the world's second-largest economy through headwinds and further open up its vast market to the rest of the world. China Daily spoke with multinational executives about their takes on the two sessions, expectations for China's high-quality development and new opportunities they are seeking in the country.

Q1: Looking at 2022, what are some of the new opportunities that China's high-level opening-up has offered to your company?

Q2: This year's Government Work Report has rolled out a host of policies to push high-quality development, such as making economic growth more balanced, green and innovation-driven. What do you think of prospects for China's high-quality development? How will your company seize related opportunities?

Q3: How do you evaluate your company's recent performance in China as the Government Work Report has mapped out measures to bolster economic growth, what are your expectations of your company's growth potential in China this year?

Q4: Against the backdrop of rising headwinds to globalization and the potential risks of decoupling, how do you see the room for cooperation with your Chinese partners? Do you have any plans to deepen industrial cooperation with your Chinese partners this year?

Q5: Do you have any plans to boost investment or expand employment in China this year?

Simon Limmer, chief executive of Silver Fern Farms

A1: We are excited about the immense potential that China's high-level opening-up will bring us, and believe that China will continue to foster a world-class, market-oriented business environment for foreign investment.

For Silver Fern Farms, it gives us the opportunity to provide this market with more of our premium red meat products that are 100 percent made in New Zealand. Silver Fern Farms wants to continue working closely with China to achieve market access for more of our processing plants and meet the growing needs of our China customers. Our people, processing plants, food quality and food safety systems give us great confidence that we can well serve the China market across our entire network of processing plants.

A2: Customers are making food choices based on sustainability, health benefits and food safety that businesses offer. These attributes have become the driving force for development. With the vision to become the world's most successful and sustainable grass-fed red meat company, Silver Fern Farms is dedicated to providing premium grass-fed beef, lamb and venison that is safe, healthy, nutritious and delicious to meet the increasing needs of discerning Chinese consumers.

A3: We have been selling into China for 20 years, and in the last three years, we have seen incredible growth. China is our biggest, most important market. As the China economy is growing rapidly, increasingly more and more Chinese consumers are demanding high-quality red meat as part of their diets. I am confident that Silver Fern Farms will continue to build strategic relationships with our customers to deliver premium quality products to Chinese consumers.

A4: Silver Fern Farms values our relationships with our Chinese partners, with whom we are building really strong strategic relationships and partnerships. They are critical to our success in the Chinese market and will take us well into the future.

We are keen to continue collaborating with more quality Chinese partners in the value chain, especially those from the high-end food-service segment and retailing, to build win-win opportunities for us, our customers and consumers around the fantastic products from Silver Fern Farms.

A5: Silver Fern Farms established its Shanghai-based team in 2018. This team is an integral part of building closer connections with our potential customers in China. We now have over 20 staff in Shanghai. We continue to be investing in capability for the team in China, developing targeted market programs and strategic customer relationships to deliver Silver Fern Farms' long-term China market strategy.

Jerry Zhang, executive vice-chairman and CEO of Standard Chartered China

A1: Standard Chartered is an active participator, contributor and beneficiary of China's reform and opening-up. The Belt and Road Initiative, the renminbi, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta region, capital markets, cross-border trade, sustainable finance and wealth management offer our bank huge opportunities in both domestic and international markets.

We look forward to more financial opening-up measures after the two sessions, which we will fully leverage to provide more innovative and high-quality solutions to support our clients in, from, and into China.

A2: Innovation, decarbonization and common prosperity rank high on China's agenda, and we anticipate China's high-quality development will drive future global economic growth over the coming decades.

To seize related opportunities, we continue to increase investment. For instance, our group announced to mobilize $300 billion in green and transition finance by 2030. Last year, our bank was involved in 128 Belt and Road projects, nearly 45 percent of which met the United Nations' definition of Sustainable Development Goals.

A3: Our China business has grown significantly, almost doubling underlying operating profit, driven by wealth management, financial markets, trade and unsecured products. The income Standard Chartered has booked from clients based in China has grown 9 percent, and China remains the group's largest network income originator. Our positioning in China has never been better and the opportunities for us never more attractive.

A4: We have enhanced cooperation with Chinese partners, ranging from our clients and fintech companies to other financial institutions. We also have long-term partnerships with major Chinese financial institutions in Belt and Road projects, and established a digital blockchain-enabled trade finance platform with Linklogis, a supply chain finance technology solutions provider in China. We signed 14 partnership MOUs at the fourth China International Import Expo in 2021 with State-owned enterprises, private-owned enterprises, industry associations and government entities.

A5: China is the most important and top strategic market for Standard Chartered. We have strong and long-term commitments to this market and will remain here for many years to come.

We are targeting a $300 million investment into our China-related businesses by 2024 to capture opportunities as they arise from the continuing opening-up of China's economy. Another example is our newly invested GBA Center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, which has entered operations recently.

Peter Foo, president and CEO of United Overseas Bank (China) Ltd

A1: China's continued liberalization in the financial sector and RCEP enforcement will provide ASEAN leading companies like UOB plenty of opportunities.

With the enhanced intra-regional connectivity between China and ASEAN, we expect more financial liberalization policies to promote the internationalization of the renminbi, including cross-border settlement, bilateral local currency settlement and two-way cross-border renminbi flow. We also expect to see policies to deepen connections with capital markets in RCEP countries to further support trade and investment activities.

A2: We will continue to develop sustainable financing solutions and support businesses in areas such as renewable energy, energy saving and industrial upgrades, as well as sectors involved in the circular economy. In 2021, we recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in the number of clients taking green loans and the volume of green financing provided. We will also sharpen our focus to support sectors that are strong drivers of China's high-quality growth by providing a suite of customized financial solutions.

A3: In 2021, UOB China's net profit before tax hit a record high and we also marked a strong start in 2022. Our stellar performance, disciplined business approach and continued investment will position us well to sustain our growth as we ride on China's high-quality economic development.

A4: Despite uneven global economic recovery and a multitude of uncertainties, bilateral trade between ASEAN and China has been increasing steadily. The two sides remained each other's largest trading partner in 2021.

We will continually deepen relationships with Chinese enterprises to help them benefit from the China-ASEAN trade corridors. For example, we will continue to work with our strategic partner Hengfeng Bank in areas of cross-border trade, wealth management, digital currency and green financing. We will also continually collaborate with Lingang Group to tap the financial liberalization policies in Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone to help companies seize new opportunities.

A5: Our long-term commitment to China and confidence in the country's growing economy is underscored by a capital injection of 2 billion yuan ($316.69 million) to UOB China from UOB Group in January. This is also the second capital injection to China since our incorporation in 2007. Backed by RCEP opportunities and the increased capital base, we will continually invest in strengthening our capabilities to support closer connectivity between China and ASEAN and roll out a three-year business plan to forge a sustainable future.

Wu Dongming, CEO of DHL Express China

A1: China's "dual-circulation" model marks the Chinese economy's entry into a new era of enhanced economic development. The continuous opening-up has been leading to an improved business environment, particularly the efficiency of Customs clearance, from an international logistics provider's perspective. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement aims to further lower trade barriers and improve market access among member countries. It will benefit small and medium-sized businesses in China in going global, which in turn increases the demand for international logistics.

A2: China has been on the path to accelerating the transition to a green and low-carbon economy towards peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, which is aligned with high-quality development goals and will bring a lot of opportunities.

In the logistics industry, DHL Express and its parent company Deutsche Post DHL Group have been pioneering the transition with a total of 7 billion euros ($7.62 billion) of investment by 2030, dedicated to leveraging clean energy, technologies and climate-neutral facilities to reduce carbon emissions. In China, we have followed the same path and have achieved some noticeable results.

A3: We are on the right track to invest and develop in China, whether it be before, during or after the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, we keep grasping opportunities in China's lower-tier cities and have opened a number of new service centers nationwide, including in Tai'an, Yinchuan and Baoji, so as to help local businesses to import more goods to meet growing appetite in those places to spend on high-quality products, and also assist them to go abroad and do businesses internationally.

A4: In 1986, DHL became the first major international logistics provider that entered the China market by developing a 50/50 joint venture with Sinotrans. DHL-Sinotrans, the JV, laid a solid foundation for the sustainable development of DHL in China. The more than 30 years of cooperation with Sinotrans has effectively translated the mutual strengths of both parties into a win-win result and become another model of China-EU cooperation. DHL Express will continue the solid partnership with Sinotrans and invest to keep our business in China growing.

A5: Our commitment to long-term growth and development in China never changes. In the past 36 years, DHL has made an investment of over 10 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) and built up a vast logistics network in China. We will further expand our infrastructure with several planned projects to strengthen the logistics network in China and establish a long-term partnership with relevant stakeholders.

Alf Barrios, chief commercial officer and China chairman of Rio Tinto

A1: We anticipate China's demand for minerals and mining products will remain strong in 2022. Our relationship with China is multifaceted. China is our largest market, home to our largest shareholder (Chinalco) and an increasingly significant supplier of goods and services required to operate our global operations, with our China Sourcing Strategy last year seeing a 44 percent increase in spending from the previous year with Chinese suppliers. We expect to see strong demand from China in 2022 and are encouraged by the policy initiatives that support economic development and the growth of the green economy.

A2: I have been incredibly encouraged by the emphasis the government has placed on addressing climate change. We are actively working with partners like Tsinghua University and Baowu on decarbonization projects, and I can only see more emphasis on these kinds of partnerships in the future. We have also decided to set up a new dedicated innovation and technology center in Beijing this year to explore collaborative opportunities.

A3: China is our largest sales market, which is 57.2 percent of group sales in 2021, and we have benefited from China's continued strong growth in 2021. In doing so, we have focused on ensuring our activities are sustainable. Together with our Chinese partners, our shared commitment to delivering sustainable economic growth puts Rio Tinto in a strong position to supply more required minerals and mining products into the Chinese market on its journey of decarbonization.

A4: COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions have posed severe challenges to the global supply chains. But by working with our partners in China and globally, we have been able to strengthen the resilience of our global supply chain. We will continue to progress our strategic partnerships with Chinese stakeholders through the joint development of overseas mineral resources, technical collaboration and talent exchanges.

A good example is the Simandou Iron Ore project in Guinea, one of Rio Tinto's largest growth projects that we are looking to bring to market with our joint venture partners Chinalco and Baowu, as well as the Government of Guinea, and where we have been pursuing technical optimization work with the support of China-based institutions and partners.

A5: There is no doubt we witnessed rapid inflation globally in the last quarter. Whilst some businesses will find interest rate increases challenging as access to cheap borrowing dries up, Rio Tinto's balance sheet is in a strong position. We see our China operations being relatively stable this year, reflective of anticipated commodity demand.