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 the 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 increase your employees in China this year?

Fuliang Xia, president of Evonik Greater China

A1: Opening-up is a key driver of China's rapid and steady economic growth and brings win-win results for both domestic industries and international players. Joining China's opening-up, Evonik is able to serve local customers with tailored solutions and becomes more competitive in the global market. Bringing our global expertise and experience to China, we also support the transformation of China's chemicals industry.

The new development blueprint heralds opening-up at a higher level, calling for more comprehensive and pragmatic efforts. We look forward to initiatives that further widen market access, simplify approval processes, strengthen protection of intellectual property rights and promote closer international cooperation.

A2: Innovation and green transformation are at the heart of China's high-quality development. They also give new impetus to global economic growth and closer international cooperation in the post-pandemic era, and thus unleash market demand for related products and boost industrial upgrade. We have been strengthening our product offerings and reducing time-to-market, and will enhance our R&D capabilities with specific technologies to support strategic emerging industries including electric vehicles, 5G, renewable energy and healthcare.

A3: Evonik regards China as a driving force of global economy. China's economy has shown strong resilience during the pandemic, while infrastructure investment projects and consumer stimulus packages during the 14th Five-Year Plan period have been a significant boost to the economy.

Evonik believes China's economy will maintain good momentum. We are ready to contribute more and will strive for another fruitful year in 2022.

A4: At Evonik, we believe openness and partnership will lead to growth and shared prosperity, and an integrated innovation model plays a crucial role all this.

Evonik has been advocating close collaborations along the value chain to create synergy for industries. We have established extensive partnerships with industries and academia so as to develop solutions at a faster pace. We will strengthen and expand networks to facilitate joint innovation.

A5: China is the biggest and fastest growing market for specialty chemicals in the world. Evonik wants to grow with China, and we are increasing our footprint.

Last year, a new silica plant by Evonik and its Chinese partner Wynca went onstream in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. The plant serves as a strong complement to our global supply chain and fulfills growing demand in China. We also upgraded the R&D center in Shanghai into Evonik Shanghai Innovation Park. Expansion of R&D facilities is now in full swing, and we expect to double the R&D head count of the park by 2027.

Rajat Agarwal, president of Henkel China

A1: China has made a lot of progress in opening its economy, offering easier market access and creating a more transparent business environment. These measures are bringing new opportunities for multinationals like Henkel, allowing us to continue to invest in China to accelerate impactful local innovations and strengthen end-to-end capabilities. Looking ahead in 2022, we believe the trend toward high-level opening-up will continue. We also appreciate new initiatives that will deepen the favorable business environment, including strengthening intellectual property protection and building an improved market system that supports growth.

A2: As part of China's transition from high-speed to high-quality development, the economic structure will be further optimized, and the capacity for innovation will be significantly strengthened. Moreover, China's clear steps to promote common prosperity through high-quality growth will increase middle-income groups and raise demand for tailor-made innovative solutions that drive sustainable living.

Henkel is committed to contributing to the country's next stage of development by strengthening local innovation capabilities and anchoring sustainability in everything we do. We invested about 500 million yuan ($79.5 million) to transform our current Zhangjiang site in Shanghai into an inspiration center last year. The facility will be the second largest in our global network.

A3: With a volatile global business environment, Henkel achieved a good overall performance globally in 2021 with 7.8 percent organic growth, supported by all three of our business units. We are proud that China contributed significantly to the group's achievements. Looking ahead, we anticipate China to continue growing in both the industrial and consumer fields.

A4: China is Henkel's third-largest and fastest-growing market. In the past decades, Henkel has established strong local innovation and production capabilities that empower our customers in China to capture new opportunities. Thanks to a strong and expanded local network, we also work closely with our suppliers and partners to ensure supply continuity and to support our customers in their growth journey.

Moving forward, we continue to strengthen our local partnerships to reinforce our business resilience and we work hand-in-hand with our customers to jointly drive innovation and achieve mutual growth.

A5: China is a major market for Henkel and our investment decisions are based on not only business opportunities but also the unique intersection of innovation, technology and talent that we find here. The establishment of our inspiration center in Shanghai, scheduled to open in 2023, demonstrates our commitment to innovating in China for China and the world.

Samantha Zhu, chairwoman of Accenture China, member of Accenture's Global Management Committee

A1: As China recalibrates its growth pattern and pursues high-level opening-up, we expect that national lawmakers and advisers will unveil new measures that will help reinvent business models and industries, reshape the experiences of how we live and work, and re-imagine ways to practice sustainability and high-quality development. As a global leading professional services company incorporated in Ireland, Accenture has been operating in China for 35 years. We have been a witness, beneficiary and contributor of the nation's opening-up, and will continue to bring our most advanced concepts, capabilities and technologies to the Chinese market.

A2: As China embarks on its journey of high-quality development, companies in the market are accelerating their innovation strategies to meet demands of today and tomorrow. The latest annual China digital transformation index research — jointly worked out by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Accenture — shows upgrades and transformation are speeding up and deepening across all sectors. Chinese businesses are eager to make wise and rapid pivots to shape breakthrough solutions and execute at speed and scale. Accenture is right here to help them pursue sustainable practices, invest in intelligent innovations, offer reliable experiences and personalized solutions, and create 360-degree values with all stakeholders.

A3: China is a key strategic market for Accenture. Our ability to capitalize on market opportunities and drive a digital transformation agenda is reflected in the continued growth of our business as we now have more than 200,000 employees in China. This is the result of having executed for years a strategy to rotate our business to digital and cloud, hiring and upskilling people across China, and fostering deep relationships with leading local companies and technology partners. With our full-span digital capabilities, we are confident that we can step up further to help our Chinese clients navigate changes, transform into thriving organizations and together create a more sustainable future.

A4: We have been accelerating innovation, boosting productivity and growing with clients and partners in China under our innovation architecture spanning research, ventures, labs, studios as well as innovation and delivery centers. China's vast and dynamic market is an ideal place to match new worldwide supply and demand at scale. We are committed to expanding our local partnerships to explore the latest digital applications, tap broad-based demand for our services and share those innovations and best practices with our clients across various industries.

Howard Ozawa, president and chief executive officer of Canon China

A1: China's opening-up, dual-circulation development pattern, implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and its signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has created significant opportunities for foreign enterprises in China. In response, Canon is accelerating the introduction of the company's latest technologies, products and solutions to the Chinese market. We will also take full advantage of the benefits of the RCEP in terms of tariff reduction and optimization of the industrial chain. Canon is convinced that the pace of China's high-level opening-up will continue and looks forward to seeing more new initiatives at the two sessions.

A2: With an emphasis on stability and high-quality development, China's economy grew by 8.1 percent year-on-year in 2021. Despite global uncertainty, Canon firmly believes the stable, high-quality growth will continue, presenting many opportunities for foreign brands.

At the core of high-quality development is innovation. As a global innovator in imaging technology, Canon continues to look for cooperation opportunities with Chinese partners.

A3: In 2021, Canon's overall revenue saw strong growth of 11.2 percent year-on-year and net profit increased by 157.7 percent. Canon China was a key contributor and driver of growth within the group, achieving incremental revenue increases in both 2020 and 2021.

The year 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of Canon China. Canon attaches great importance to the Chinese market and aims for it to become No 1 within the Canon Group by 2035. To achieve this, we have undergone a strategic rethink aimed at developing more products based on local demand and working to localize our approach to business operations here in China to the furthest possible extent.

A4: Overall, the anti-globalization trend has not affected the development of Canon's business in China and the relationships between Canon and our Chinese partners. On the contrary, China's continued opening-up remains a significant source of new opportunities for Canon.

With the upgrading of Chinese industry and consumption, domestic demand for high-end overseas manufacturing and high-tech services is growing rapidly. In the meantime, 5G, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence are driving demand from consumers in areas ranging from imaging to medical care.

A5: Canon continues to attach great importance to the China market, as China's importance and links to the global economy grow. We are hugely optimistic and confident in China's future potential and will continue to invest here, creating new jobs for the people of China and providing an increasing array of products and services to meet their needs.

Woody Guo, president of Herbalife Nutrition China, senior vice-president of Herbalife Nutrition

A1: We have deeply felt the continuous improvement of China's business environment and are very confident in the long-term development prospects of the Chinese market. We will continue to increase investment in product innovation, digital transformation and personalized nutrition to appeal to younger demographics.

In terms of the policies launched in recent years, I think a lot of initiatives such as encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, stimulating market vitality and simplifying enterprise registration will surely help further expand domestic demand and activate the consumer market. We also expect more policies to be unveiled in the annual two sessions.

A2: We are very impressed by the prospects of China's high-quality development. China is focusing on innovation in all sectors, and innovation is also the driving force for Herbalife Nutrition's long-term development. We began full operations of the China Production Innovation Center (CPIC) in Shanghai last year, with investment of 160 million yuan ($25 million). It is also the company's first product innovation center globally.

A3: The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly made consumers reevaluate the importance of health. This has been creating huge opportunities for the health and nutrition industry. Statistics show that China's health product market is expected to reach to 320 billion yuan in 2023. We expect to meet the growing and diversified demand by providing innovative products for younger people.

A4: The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the historic document – the Shanghai Communique. It is an important cornerstone for US-China exchanges and cooperation in wide areas including bilateral trade and economic cooperation. In China, Herbalife Nutrition has also been working very closely with our Chinese partners, such as our supply chain partners. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, our supply chain faced great challenges, like labor shortages and logistics disruptions. Our supply chain partners gave us very strong support to solve these problems.

A5: In China, consumption upgrade and domestic demand expansion will help the country to grow its consumer base under the dual-circulation development plan, providing huge growth potential for foreign enterprises including Herbalife Nutrition. We have invested in product innovation to provide more personalized products and services to consumers. We will continue to invest in the Chinese market and focus on our long-term development in the country.