World CEOs optimistic about China's economic outlook

Michael Lai, General Manager of AstraZeneca China

As a global biopharmaceutical company that has been deeply rooted in China for 27 years, we naturally take the fight against the epidemic as our duty and take action promptly. We also try our best to coordinate global resources to provide full support to medical staff and patients who insist on fighting the epidemic. Since the outbreak, AstraZeneca has donated 1 million yuan to the Red Cross, 15,000 medical masks and over 90,000 medical gloves to frontline medical staff, as well as two batches of medicine worth 6.5 million yuan in total. Our employees also voluntarily donated 2.6 million yuan. AstraZeneca is working with international health authorities to explore ways in which AstraZeneca might be able to support the effort to find measures against the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

China's economy has shown strong resilience for decades. This gives us full confidence the impact of the epidemic on the economy is temporary and will not change the fundamentals of the nation's long-term economic growth. So AstraZeneca's operation strategy will remain the same, and will continue to invest in China by upgrading our Shanghai R&D platform to a global R&D center this year. In addition to the current China headquarters in Shanghai, AstraZeneca will also establish regional headquarters in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou and Chengdu.

China's economic contribution to the world's economic growth is obvious to all. According to the IMF, in 2019 Asia contributed 70 percent of global economic growth, of which China alone accounted for 41 percent. As a global biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca has also benefitted from China's strong economic growth, as the country has been our second-biggest market worldwide. We are optimistic about China's economic potential and will continue to support China's economic development in action.