(Invest in China) Interview with President of Bosch China: China has become an important innovation base for Bosch
China News Service, Beijing, February 20 (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) The ongoing epidemic has changed people's lifestyles and profoundly affected the "business" of global companies.
In an era when online consumption is strong and serving the local market becomes more and more important, what should foreign companies do in China?
In an interview with a reporter from China News Agency recently, Bosch China President Chen Yudong said that China has become an important innovation base for Bosch. In the future, Bosch's main business areas in China, such as home appliances, power tools, and automotive technology, will enter the digital retail system.
At present, China has become Bosch Group's largest overseas market for the fifth consecutive year.
According to Bosch data, the company's sales in China in 2020 will be about 117.3 billion yuan, an increase of about 9.1% year-on-year, a record high.
At the same time, China became the largest single market of the Bosch Group for the first time.
Chen Yudong said that China is not only an important strategic market for Bosch Group, but also an important innovation base for Bosch.
For example, Bosch has now established an innovation and software development center in China, aiming to further strengthen local innovation and software development capabilities, and develop cutting-edge technologies and solutions suitable for the Chinese market.
He said that in the past, Bosch introduced overseas innovative technologies and solutions to China to lead and meet the needs of the Chinese market.
But now, China has become the world's second largest economy, and its domestic market has continued to grow, becoming a fertile ground for global innovation and technology research and development.
Bosch also pays more attention to introducing China's innovative experience and products to overseas markets to support the development of global business.
"We hope to develop more innovative products for China's local needs, and at the same time feed back these innovative experiences to overseas markets." Chen Yudong said.
It is worth noting that the Chinese market itself is also changing.
Under the epidemic, people are more inclined to shop online, and new economies such as the "home economy" have sprung up.
Chen Yudong believes that the epidemic is affecting people's consumer psychology and reshaping consumer behavior. The rapid growth of online consumption is a manifestation of new consumer behavior.
Under this circumstance, Bosch will pay more attention to creating an online and offline integrated consumption mode. Through deepening cooperation with Alibaba, Tmall and other platforms, it will realize global insight, global membership, and multi-end and cross-scenario applications, and gain new growth potential. .
Prior to this, Bosch has reached a comprehensive strategic partnership with Alibaba.
Chen Yudong revealed that in the future, the company's full-link operations from new product development to product retailing, from membership system operations to product marketing, will be connected to Alibaba's commercial operating system.
Bosch China's main business areas, including household appliances, power tools, thermal technology, automotive aftermarket, smart technology, and automotive technology businesses, will all enter the digital retail system.
He said that the two parties will also explore cooperation opportunities in the field of Internet of Vehicles, and tap the potential of cooperation in areas such as smart high-speed, unmanned distribution and smart cockpits.
In fact, the cooperation between Chinese and German companies has continued for many years.
As promoting the early recovery of the economy has become a common task for all countries, the manufacturing industries of the two countries have new room for cooperation in many areas.
Chen Yudong believes that China already has the world's largest manufacturing industry and has accumulated rich experience and innovation capabilities in many industries such as new energy vehicles.
Compared with China, Germany's industrial advantages are mainly concentrated in the fields of automobiles, electrical, CNC machine tools, and China's current focus is on artificial intelligence and 5G.
From this perspective, the two sides still have a lot of room for cooperation.
A few days ago, China-EU investment agreement negotiations were completed, indicating that open cooperation is still the world trend.
“This agreement sends a positive signal to European companies in China and encourages us to increase investment and technology research and development in China,” Chen Yudong said. The negotiation of the China-EU investment agreement proposes to expand the opening of the automotive sector, which will help boost Bosch’s Automotive-related technology research and development investment and local investment.
The future development of China's transportation automation, intelligence, personalization and interconnection has huge potential. Bosch is accelerating the technological research and development of autonomous driving, new energy, and Internet of Things.
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