Views and hopes from top executives

Kenneth Yu

president of 3M China Region and CEO of 3M China

A1 China's economy is stabilizing, and will hopefully progress through the crisis toward stronger growth, driven by huge domestic demand. For the next decade, the Chinese economy will surely sail ahead quickly yet steadily and reach the shore of a brighter future.

I'm happy to see that some promising markets in China are growing rapidly with the support of an "invisible hand", such as healthcare, new energy, automobile and environmental protection. 3M has set foot in all these areas and has unbounded confidence in the Chinese economy.

A2 "Geographic expansion" is one of the key strategic pillars for 3M in the next five years, which is designed based on our business performance and our perspectives to local markets.

3M is a company driven by innovation. Our investment in innovation is the cornerstone for business in the future. We will consistently invest in research and development, with $120 million in the next five years.

If you ask a CEO of any multinational company which is the most important country besides their home nation, it must be China. At 3M, we are here in China and for China.

A3 The third-quarter profit of 3M was up 6.7 percent as margins widen. In China, we are expecting growth of more than 10 percent this year, a little bit slower than for the past 10 years. A diversified business strategy gives us an edge over our peers.

We are dedicated to capacity expansion in China, and our compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 15 percent to 20 percent in the next five years.

A4 Each coin has two sides; diversity is a case in point. We gained tremendous benefits from our diversified business portfolios, but sometimes it may weaken your brand proposition. You can't describe 3M in a single word nor count out our 69,000 products one by one.

A5 I'm not a savant on politics but what I can tell you is that China's economy is at the stage of a soft landing.

I'm confident China's economy will pick up in the first or second quarter next year, with the new leadership and recently announced government investment plans.

We hope the new leadership can further encourage wholly owned foreign enterprises to invest in China, with favorable policies, and allow foreign direct investment in those State-owned sectors that were closed to us previously.

Jiang Weiming

president of Royal DSM China and corporate vice-president of DSM

A1 China is, and will continue to be, one of the world's most important growth engines. The GDP growth rate is only one of the growth indicators. We believe China is heading in the right direction by balancing the quality of growth better.

In this year's global economy, to keep growing in the range of between 6 percent and 8 percent is healthy and already the highest rate in the world. For a life sciences and materials sciences company like DSM, China will continue to be the center of our strategy for many years to come.

A2 China is in an important phase of its development, with an improved legal and social system to benefit people's living standards. In this way, the country is creating more favorable domestic markets.

With growing needs for high-quality products and solutions on nutrition, health and new materials, China has become an even more important market for us and we will continue to expand our investment in the country to serve local needs.

A3 Many companies might face bigger challenges this year in terms of business performance, which is a reflection of the external business environment, but we still have strong confidence in the next five years of business and in our ability to achieve profitable growth overall.

The entire chemical industry in China is facing a great challenge of transforming from excessive capacity expansion to a green and sustainable development approach. We have to focus even more on achieving a balance between people, the planet and profit together, and that requires more cross-boundary cooperation between governments, local and multinational companies and non-governmental organizations.

A4 Our biggest concerns relate to research and development and technological development, and we have seen examples where people don't respect intellectual property rights, and companies which don't pay enough attention to technological development.

A5 We expect the new leadership to focus more on innovations and technological development rather than capital investment.

To achieve sustainable development, Chinese companies are encouraged to report to their stakeholders not only their financial achievements but also their accomplishments in terms of environmental and social performance.