INTRODUCING new products, services and technologies, while also discussing cooperation intentions with Chinese partners and expressing ideas at forums at the second Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) in Hangzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, foreign companies are seeking growing opportunities in the Chinese market. Shan Guohong, senior vice president of Takeda and president of Takeda China, said China has scale advantage to develop digital trade and its opening-up efforts have optimized the business environment. Since Takeda entered China in 1994, the country has been deemed one of its important strategic markets, Shan said. Now, its Chinese subsidiary has developed into one of the best-performing transnational pharmaceutical firms in China. “China is committed to building a digital trade market featuring high-level openness and cooperation, and the GDTE provides a platform to exchange ideas on new standards, issues and trends related to digital trade,” he said. Having already cooperated with its Chinese partner in digitalization of medical care products and services, Takeda hopes to leverage the expo to work with different parties to explore paths to promote the high-quality development of the industry, thereby delivering more benefits to Chinese patients. Takeda is not alone in hoping to use the GDTE as an opportunity to showcase advanced applications. At the Tesla booth, visitors flocked to see a humanoid robot named Optimus, which is capable of going up stairs, squatting, holding heavy items, grasping tiny objects and operating mechanical devices. Optimus is expected to enter mass production in 3-5 years. Tesla, participating in the expo for a second time, is also displaying some of its new automobiles featuring innovative technology. “In the future, vehicles will surely become smarter and more digital-savvy,” said Gao Weize, a regional head of Tesla. U.S. company Amazon Global Selling is attending the expo for a second consecutive year. This year, the company has expanded its booth space and prepared speeches covering various topics, hoping to share its experience in cross-border e-commerce and deepen cooperation with Chinese partners. China’s digital trade has made significant progress. In 2022, China’s digitally-delivered service trade value rose 3.4% year on year to US$372.71 billion, accounting for around 9% of the global total, according to a report released at the expo. By the end of 2022, the number of Chinese digital service platform enterprises with an individual market value of over US$1 billion had exceeded 200. Likewise, an increasing number of overseas brands have entered the Chinese market or expanded their business in China in response to the rise of digital trade in China. China has massive data resources, a solid market foundation and outstanding innovative capabilities in developing digital trade, while a string of supportive measures rolled out in recent years confirmed the country’s sincerity to develop the sector, said Shan. (Xinhua) | 