China's policies enhance business climate, bolster foreign confidence: Bayer VP

China's favorable policies and opening-up measures have further improved its business environment and boosted the confidence of foreign companies in the country, according to Bayer Healthcare's Vice President Thomas Jacxsens.

Talking to China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Beijing, Jacxsens hailed China's commitment to deepening reform and further opening up in the healthcare sector.

In September 2024, China issued a notice of the pilot program for expanding opening up in the healthcare sector, with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin designated among the nine provinces and municipalities to launch fully foreign-funded hospital trials.

"All of these policies are definitely interesting and catching the interests and curiosity of pharmaceutical companies, especially the policies around allowing foreign-owned entities to get involved in innovations around cell and gene therapies, that is very promising for us because Bayer is actually one of the global innovators when it comes to those therapies. We have two wholly owned subsidiaries, AskBio and BlueRock, and those companies are working on some cutting-edge therapies, for example, for Parkinson's disease. And that will be really interesting to see how that can at some point line up with what's happening in China," said Jacxsens.

Beijing's strengths in innovation and advanced manufacturing have made it a great city for foreign investment, according to Jacxsens.

"What is keeping me busy right now is a curiosity around what is happening in the area of advanced automation and advanced robotics, and we believe that we are in the middle of the 'candy store', as I call it, there are so many innovative companies working on this area here in Beijing and in China, so we want to tap into that, we want to understand the trends that are happening there. So that we can see the added value for the pharmaceutical industry and then hopefully also bring that into our whole global network," he said.

The businessman has played an active role in fostering communication between Chinese and German companies, including participation in events like the China International Import Expo and sharing insights on China's healthcare policies with Bayer's headquarters in Germany. As the Chinese market continues to open up and the business environment continues to improve, Jacxsens said his company intends to stay in China for the long term.

"We have been here 140 years and we intend to stay here a lot longer, so we keep our eyes open. We are part of the communities here and every day we try to be a better version of ourselves," Jacxsens said.

China's policies enhance business climate, bolster foreign confidence: Bayer VP

China's consumer market showed steady growth in the first two months this year, driven by policies such as the expanded trade-in program, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Data showed that total retail sales of consumer goods reached over 8.37 trillion yuan (about 1.17 trillion U.S. dollars) from January to February, climbing 4 percent year on year.

With the implementation of the expanded consumer goods trade-in program, the retail sales of communication equipment and cultural and office supplies by enterprises above the designated size jumped by 26.2 percent and 21.8 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year. Sales of furniture and household appliances increased by 11.7 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively, on a year-on-year basis.

China's service consumption also continued to expand in the first two months. The retail sales of services in the period showed a 4.9 percent year-on-year growth. Specifically, catering revenue grew by 4.3 percent from a year earlier. Notably, the retail sales of tourism consultation and leasing services as well as transportation and travel services all achieved double-digit growth rates year on year.

In addition, the growth rate of rural consumption outpaced that of urban consumption during the January-February period. The retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas increased by 4.6 percent year on year, with growth rate being 0.8 percentage points higher than that recorded in urban areas.

China's consumer market maintains steady growth at start of 2025: data