Last year, China's economy maintained healthy development, with economic growth ranking first among major economies. Meanwhile, the nation has taken a raft of measures, such as the Foreign Investment Law and the second China International Import Expo, to further promote high-level opening-up.
With the arrival of the new year, China Daily website has invited several top executives from multinational companies to share their views on the country's economic development and their companies' business strategies in China this year.
A very happy new year and new decade. The year 2020 is synonymous with a perfect vision. Notwithstanding current headwinds, China's real accomplishments are that it has invested judiciously in essential infrastructure - education, healthcare, transport of all kinds, community - that will be the bedrock to provide social and economic stability for a long time to come, despite any temporary setbacks.
I look forward to being a part of China's next phase in "soft areas" such as finance and the environment where the benefits are intangible such as "shared values" and "corporate social responsibility". I am confident that despite being the largest country in the world, China has that perfect vision in 2020 to get there.
2020 will be a year of expectation and opportunities. China will continue to grow in an extremely sustainable route of high-rise and high-density cities.
The Greater Bay Area three-year action plan will continue to promote economic development and urban construction projects. The implementation of the Foreign Investment Law in 2020 will help to open up opportunities for foreign investors. The unification of the National Construction Project Approval and Management System will also enhance business activities in China.
2020 is the final year to achieve a "Moderately Well-Off Society" and the 13th Five-Year Plan. This speeds up the urbanization process and results in increasing pressure for cities to build large-scale and mixed-use commercial buildings to maximize land usage and meet the needs. Thus in Aedas, we design porous, multifunctional and multilevel public spaces within our projects to vitalize and connect the urban environment and the communities within.
2020 is the beginning of the third decade in the 21st century, which will serve as the starting point where China's economy will be further globalized. It's also a critical period for China's fast-growing digital economy.
We believe China will deepen the reform and opening-up initiative, promote the robust growth of its digital economy and meet its people's aspirations for a better life. China will also assume bigger responsibility in the global arena and seek a new type of international relations with partnerships and shared wins at its core so as to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
China is today the world's second-biggest cruise source market, with 2.35 million nationals taking cruises last year. The success of cruises in China is crucial to the development of the global cruise industry.
MSC Cruises always regards China as an important strategic market, with a vision to achieve healthy, sustainable growth with the entire industry.
2020 is a milestone year for MSC Cruises. We will continue to strengthen our presence in the Chinese market with upgraded capacity and products, most importantly, deploying the 172,000 gross tonnage flagship MSC Bellissima here, the largest cruise ship in Asia. MSC Cruises is first global cruise line to deploy flagship to China, which will herald China's cruise market to enter a "flagship era". We look forward to welcoming this new age full of opportunities with our industry partners.
China has been the key market for Avaya since its first presence in this country. In the last two decades, Avaya has been working with the local customers and partners and experienced the rapid economic development of China. Meanwhile, the pioneering technology emerged in China has empowered Avaya to benefit other regional markets in the world.
The various demands of the Chinese market have been driving technological innovations. With more and more new ideas and technologies introduced to this market, 2020 will be a promising year lit up by technologies. This will be an excellent opportunity for enterprises. Avaya will insist on its "In China, For China" commitment during this year. Through the integrated communication enabling platform, Avaya will continue delivering the best enterprise communication services to Chinese customers and the market to accelerate technological development and drive digital transformation in various industries, leading to disruptive changes in the communication sector.
The global economy including China is expected to undergo a transition in 2020. China's GDP growth is estimated to be slower compared to the previous growth cycle, but remains favorable in comparison to the rest of the world. Private equities continue to seek to deploy capital despite high valuations. The market is shifting from a growth dependent approach to a hybrid of growth and value creation in order to drive returns. This means companies will be looking for transformation to improve efficiency and enhance value.
Alvarez and Marsal is a leading global management consulting firm with a strong business turnaround heritage and hands-on approach to creating value. We are supporting an increasing number of companies with their transformation and value creation efforts and we anticipate further growth going into 2020.
Austrian companies have entered the New Year with renewed optimism, expecting certainty as well as long-promised economic reform and improvements in fields like predictability and the rule of law.
By and large, Austrian companies are quite satisfied with their performance in the Chinese market, with most of their key business figures holding up in 2019. They have started to adjust their business models, putting a stronger emphasis on productivity gains in order to cope with increased competition and establishing strategic alliances with Chinese partners.
