Top executives weigh in at CIIE (II)

Howard Ozawa, executive vice-president of Canon Inc, president & CEO of Canon (China) Co Ltd

A1: Canon has attended the CIIE for four consecutive years. CIIE offers a concrete path to convert exhibits into commodities, and exhibitors into investors, providing great opportunities for foreign brands to enter the Chinese market.

Canon takes the CIIE as an important opportunity to have a better understanding of Chinese customers, which will allow us to better provide products and services catering to the markets' demands.

A2: Definitely. Thanks to opportunities such as the CIIE, China and the rest of the world get more connected with each other. As the world's first national-level exhibition under the theme of imports, the CIIE has contributed to achieving high-quality development and a more open dual-circulation development pattern in China, especially in the new development stage of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) in this country.

A3: We are happy to see the Chinese government's commitment to deepening the opening-up of the market and its great contribution to the global economic recovery. China is ahead of the curve in the recovery. China's GDP growth is projected to reach a growth rate of 8 percent in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund. The rapid recovery and growth of China's economy will become a strong boost to global economic recovery, and it will also stimulate huge demand in the domestic market.

A4: Canon's business in China is diversified, covering areas from personal imaging products to business-end commercial products. Those industries both have bright perspectives in China.

China's consumer market is going digital. China has a very large domestic market, and young consumers are eager to embrace digital in all its forms. Furthermore, China's digital globalization is only just getting started and is gathering momentum. As a leading brand in the imaging industry, Canon has been actively exploring the application of digital imaging technology to embrace this trend in China.

A5: We are convinced that the business environment for foreign companies in China will improve continuously. On one hand, an increasing number of laws and incentives including the Foreign Investment Law have been implemented to provide support for foreign companies like Canon. On the other hand, China has deepened its opening-up to the world, bringing more business opportunities to foreign companies.

A6: As the world's second-largest economy, China is a driving force for promoting the world economy and plays an increasingly important role. China's opening-up to the world is also of great significance to boost global economic growth, especially in a period when the global economy is facing challenges. By attracting foreign investment and opening up the market, China can further stimulate the global market and be more conducive to the recovery of the global economy.

A7: From my perspective, the transformation of foreign investment and trade from high quantity to high quality will play a key role in ensuring China's high-level of opening-up, especially in high-end manufacturing, services, artificial intelligence, and other fields.

Canon is also willing to introduce more high-quality products and technologies to the Chinese market to help China play a more important role in the global supply chain.

A8: China has been actively advocating economic globalization. As an enterprise home-based in Asia, Canon also feels that the investment environment in China is being increasingly improved with deepened opening-up. Furthermore, China is making tremendous efforts to create a fair trading system, bringing benefits to foreign companies. These initiatives have proved China's support for trade freedom and multilateralism.