Innovation, sustainability driving growth

A1: Fast and stable economic development has been one of China's biggest achievements in the past decades.

China's opening-up has offered AstraZeneca the chance to build long-term partnerships with academic, scientific and business communities in China to make more quality medicines and holistic disease management solutions available to patients. In 2017, we founded the Dizal joint-venture to promote the core competence of new drug development in China.

A2: We are confident that China's economic growth rate will continue and be sustainable, as China is now focusing on the quality and sustainability of growth, rather than merely quantity. Fast developing technologies such as digital internet marketing pose growing challenges to the healthcare industry. We see challenges as opportunities. Astra-Zeneca China is leading the way in evolving from a simple drug supplier into an innovative medical enterprise that provides patients with comprehensive disease management solutions.

A3: The Foreign Investment Law will provide a more solid guarantee for the legitimate rights of foreign companies on a legal level, creating a more open, fair and transparent investment environment in China. We believe that an optimized market as well as a positive and dynamic investment climate will maximize the initiative of innovation, attract and converge overseas resources, and further promote the cooperation of foreign and domestic companies, realizing mutual development.

A4: China's macroeconomic growth has enabled Chinese companies to make significant progress in many aspects including public health. We see many opportunities for further collaboration with our partners in China to solve the most challenging problems in the healthcare industry.

Among the most inspiring developments in digital health are new technologies that embrace the potential behind the internet of things and artificial intelligence, which is set to be one of the most significant advances in science in China and the United Kingdom.

A5: The Chinese government has placed high importance on transforming government functions by streamlining administration, delegating power, enhancing oversight and providing better services. The pace of reform to cut red tape in China has been fast during the past five years. In healthcare, accelerating the approval process of new medicines is essential. We witnessed and supported the streamlining of administration. A good recent example is Tagrisso, an innovation discovered and developed in the UK that received approval in China in record time.