Editor's Note: As China launches its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), policymakers are strengthening coordination between the "Export to China" and "Shopping in China" campaigns. The effort signals a clear commitment to expanding imports while promoting high-quality consumption. To explore what this means for global business, we invited executives from multinational corporations to share their perspectives on the opportunities in China's vast market, the role of their China operations in global strategy, and their outlook for the years ahead.

Q1 China's GDP grew 5 percent in 2025, reaching 140.19 trillion yuan ($20.29 trillion). For 2026, the government targets growth of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent, with a planned deficit ratio of around 4 percent. How do you assess the credibility and policies backing this target? Amid moderating global demand, what does China's relative growth certainty mean for your company's global capital allocation, earnings outlook and investor expectations? Does the combination of proactive fiscal policies and accommodative monetary measures reinforce your confidence in sustaining or expanding operations in China?

Depoux: The 2026 growth target of 4.5 percent to 5 percent is a strategic calibration. It is not a sign of uncertainty, but a necessary trade-off to achieve higher-priority objectives. This calibration creates fiscal and political buffers to drive the reform and address the real problems without the pressure of chasing high growth at all costs. Importantly, China is not investing less, but investing differently with more precision, discipline and patience. This year, China announced the headline budget deficit ratio will be maintained at a record high level of 4 percent of gross domestic product. That signals a continued willingness to keep the fiscal taps open to boost demand while using government borrowing to keep the economy from cooling further. Investment for short-term GDP growth will be reduced or even cut, and massive amounts of money can be redistributed to the real needs of China's transformation, namely technology and the people. In this way, we might see slower growth, but it will create a stabler, stronger and more resilient foundation, which is critical for multinationals to do business in China.

Zhang: Grupo Bimbo consistently regards China as one of its most strategically vital markets globally. Within our corporate architecture, China has evolved beyond a vast consumer market to become a strategic hub that integrates manufacturing, a global innovation engine and supply chain resilience. The rapid iteration and high-frequency innovation within China's baking industry have compelled us to build significant competitive advantages. Currently, we operate two R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai, with the Beijing center officially recognized as a "foreign-invested R&D center". This allows our China operations to function as an innovation high ground, where the product launch cycle has been significantly shortened.

Cheng: The target sends a clear signal to "promote qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy". We remain optimistic about the long-term logic of China's economic growth. The cultivation of "new quality productive forces" has entered a critical phase, with artificial intelligence and robotics technologies demonstrating vigorous vitality. Simultaneously, Chinese enterprises' global layout is maturing. These positive developments create a transparent and predictable environment for markets and investors, both domestically and internationally, while also opening-up new opportunities for innovation and development in the banking sector.

DBS is currently in a new stage of growing and co-creating value in China. We recognize the profound resilience of China's economic development. Moving forward, we will continue to leverage Singapore's advantages as a leading Asian financial hub, rooting ourselves in China to support China's real economy in advancing toward higher-quality development.

Q2 In 2025, China's exports rose 6.1 percent, newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 19.1 percent, and research and development intensity reached 2.8 percent of GDP. Against the backdrop of global supply chain reconfiguration, is China's role in your global strategy expanding? How do you evaluate China's integrated advantages — manufacturing depth, innovation capacity, infrastructure and market scale — in supporting your production networks and supply resilience? Does China function primarily as a market, a production base, an innovation hub, or increasingly all three within your corporate architecture?

Jiang: China has always been one of Zespri's key markets. China has made significant strides in opening its market and attracting international trade and investment, making it one of Zespri's most important strategic markets globally. China has given Zespri the confidence and determination to strengthen its commitment to the Chinese market. Zespri plans to expand its sales footprint in China from 60 to 120 cities and aims to double both sales volume and revenue in 2034/35. The 10-year period has been chosen as it coincides with the New Zealand government's objective to double the value of New Zealand's total exports starting from its first year in office.

Depoux: For multinational companies, China remains pivotal. It is not only a big market, but also increasingly a source of innovation and competitiveness. It is an opportunity for MNCs to strengthen global competitiveness and turn the China challenge into a strategic advantage across global operations. As the world fractures into competing blocs, MNCs need to be on both sides, and China can be a bridge to integrate with Asia and the Global South. We believe that as management consultants, Roland Berger has an important role to play in China's economic transformation pursuing high-quality development. We will further adapt, localize and develop our offerings in China — blending our global expertise with China's agile innovation.

Zhang: Our footprint in China — comprising 10 advanced factories, two R&D centers and a distribution network of 598 sales routes — reflects our utilization of China's sophisticated manufacturing depth and infrastructure. In 2024, Bimbo China and its Beijing Mankattan Food Technology Co Ltd were officially confirmed as "regional headquarters of multinational corporations", underscoring our commitment to building a robust local supply chain. We firmly believe in the immense potential of the Chinese mainland market with the commitment to "nourishing a better world" within the Chinese landscape. Since entering the Chinese mainland market in 2006, Grupo Bimbo has consistently adhered to a long-term development strategy and established a comprehensive industrial ecosystem in China, operating 10 advanced plants and two R&D centers located in Beijing and Shanghai.

Cheng: 2026 marks a pivotal year for comprehensively deepening reforms. After participating in, witnessing and benefitting from China's opening-up journey for over 30 years, DBS firmly believes in the broad prospects of China's long-term development strategy and positions the Chinese market as a strategically significant key market. The establishment of DBS Securities in 2021, the increase of our shareholding to 91 percent in 2024, and becoming a direct overseas participant of the Cross-border Interbank Payment System and an authorized Singapore's RMB clearing bank in 2025, are empirical evidence of DBS's increased investment in China, and demonstrate our firm confidence in China's financial opening-up policies.

Q3 China is advancing the unified national market, with an urbanization rate of 67.9 percent and total retail sales surpassing 50 trillion yuan. As domestic demand expands, what structural opportunities does this vast, increasingly integrated market present for your portfolio, distribution channels and localization strategy? Does deeper market unification reduce operational fragmentation and compliance costs? How do you position your brand and product mix to capture demand from both top-tier cities and fast-growing lower-tier markets?

Jiang: Zespri has observed an increasing embrace of a healthy lifestyle in China's consumer market, moving toward healthier, more sustainable, and higher-standard development.

As a global premium fruit brand, Zespri is dedicated to providing Chinese families with high-quality kiwifruit. Zespri kiwifruit is rich in nutrients, including vitamin C and dietary fiber. Sun Gold kiwifruit, in particular, offers high nutritional density.

Zespri's goal is to work with local partners to promote healthy lifestyles continuously and lead the industry toward healthier, more sustainable and higher-standard development.

Depoux: What makes China distinct is not only its scale, but also its diversity and capacity to generate innovative products and business models that are increasingly different from other markets. There is still massive consumption potential to be unleashed. In 2025, China's total household savings reached a record high of over 160 trillion yuan ($23.23 trillion). Five percent of Chinese residential savings approximately equals the GDP of a medium-sized country. To tap into this potential, we need to deeply understand the evolution of consumption preferences of Chinese consumers as they are becoming more sophisticated and rational. We, as Roland Berger, will continue to work with our Chinese clients and multinationals alike to understand the China market, identify the opportunities and push for innovation around the business models, value and supply chains, and technologies.

Zhang: The advancement of China's "unified national market" significantly reduces operational fragmentation and presents structural opportunities for Bimbo to deepen market penetration across all regions. We are capturing these opportunities through a multibrand matrix, localized innovation, and omnichannel deployment.

Leveraging the scale of China's market, we implement a differentiated brand layout. The Mankattan brand focuses on health and professional innovation, meeting the wellness needs of urbanized populations through products like "Ciabatta". Simultaneously, the Bimbo brand targets families and younger demographics, emphasizing nutrition and emotional connection.

Cheng: DBS focuses on domestic demand upgrading and supports Chinese new economy enterprises' global expansion through a dedicated "New Economy" team, providing enterprises with comprehensive financial service support covering credit, foreign exchange management and cross-border finance, building a multidimensional services ecosystem.

With growing demand for global asset allocation, DBS is further penetrating the wealth management market and intensifying the development of cross-border investment products. Using our first international wealth center, launched in Shanghai as a fulcrum, we continue to optimize the layout and functional configuration of our physical branches to provide high-net-worth clients with a superior wealth management experience.

Q4 China's trade-in program generated over 2.6 trillion yuan in sales in 2025, alongside the "Shopping in China" and "Export to China" initiatives. China's exports grew 6.1 percent year-on-year. How is your company aligning its China strategy to capture both domestic consumption upgrades and export-oriented opportunities? Do you see China increasingly as a global production and innovation base serving international markets? How are you balancing local demand expansion with China's role in your global export ecosystem?

Depoux: For multinationals, the bar is rising: competing in China now means standing alongside products that resonate not only with local consumers, but also with international visitors drawn by uniqueness and value. As consultants, we support our clients in balancing local market expansion with export-oriented growth — adapting offerings and brand positioning to succeed in an ecosystem where China is increasingly both a sophisticated consumer market and a launchpad for global reach.

Zhang: Driven by consumer insights, we continue to advance localized innovation. In response to the single economy and changing lifestyles, we have launched products including mini Dofi. In line with the Healthy China initiative, we accelerated the R&D and commercialization of whole-grain and nutrition-focused products, integrating our global expertise with the preferences of Chinese consumers.

Going forward, Grupo Bimbo will actively support the national strategy of building a Healthy China as outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan. We will leverage our global resources to strengthen innovation in healthy products, and work with industry associations and experts to promote the development of clean label standards, contributing to the high-quality development of China's food industry.

Market unification facilitates the optimization of our distribution networks. While maintaining a strong presence in traditional retail, we have identified e-commerce and O2O as our primary growth engines for 2026. By collaborating deeply with partners to develop customized hits, such as the "Mankattan Triple Cheese Potato Burger Bun" with Sam's Club, we are effectively bridging the gap between top-tier cities and fast-growing emerging markets. By forging deep partnerships with leading livestreaming influencers such as "Yuhui Tongxing", we have successfully driven the exceptional market performance of our ciabatta product, injecting significant momentum into the growth of Bimbo's e-commerce business.

Cheng: Over the past year, DBS has boosted foreign trade stability and domestic-international dual circulation. As Singapore's RMB clearing bank and a China-overseas direct CIPS participant, we have upgraded cross-border settlement efficiency and security, integrating RMB's cross-border usage with consumption and foreign trade to drive its innovative application in trade, supply chain finance and wealth management, forming a comprehensive cycle of releasing consumption potential and high-quality investment.

This year marks China-Singapore's 36th diplomatic anniversary. As Singapore and Southeast Asia's top commercial bank, DBS will leverage its "Connecting Asia" edge to deepen the cross-border financial ecosystem, expand interbank bond market qualifications, increase panda bond lead underwriting, advance Bond Connect participation, attract global investors and boost efficient two-way domestic-overseas capital flow.

Q5 China last year reduced energy intensity by 5.1 percent, raised the nonfossil energy share to 21.7 percent, and expanded new-type energy storage capacity beyond 130 gigawatts. Artificial intelligence and advanced technologies remain at the forefront globally. Where do you see the strongest partnership potential in China's green transition and AI-driven industrial upgrading? Are you expanding investment in renewables, digitalization, smart manufacturing, or carbon management solutions? How central is China to your global sustainability roadmap and next-generation technology deployment?

Jiang: Zespri supports alignment with the Paris Agreement and our ambition is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Developing a credible, practical pathway to net zero is critical to our ambition to be the world's healthiest fruit brand and remain competitive.

Zespri is resetting our sustainability goals using the double materiality principle, developing climate transition plans and addressing risks and opportunities head-on.

Promoting the health and nutrition of kiwifruit — combating hidden hunger with AI-driven precision, e.g. consumer insight analytics: Utilize natural language processing to analyze social media and health forums, uncovering emerging nutrition trends and consumer pain points to inform product positioning.

Decarbonizing our supply chain — finding innovative solutions and improving efficiency to build resilience through AI-optimized operations for our supply chain.

Driving circularity in packaging — transforming linear models with AI innovation, aiming for cost reduction, efficiency improvement and enhanced shopper/consumer liking and experience.

Depoux: Today China is not only a manufacturing powerhouse, but also a global innovation hub shaping trends in sustainability and high-tech industries. Taking AI as an example, previously, most of the AI-driven gains in China came from the traditional AI technologies/models, such as traditional machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and automation. With China's industrial modernization drive, AI-powered automation has been embedded in the Chinese industry. Autonomous robots and AI-optimized production lines are common in large-scale manufacturing and logistics.

At Roland Berger, we aim to empower our clients to turn their AI ambitions into tangible value through close co-creation. We combine deep industry expertise with proven transformation capabilities to support the entire journey of our client — from defining a clear digital/AI strategy and measurable outcomes to designing and deploying AI solutions.

Cheng: China has made remarkable progress in green, low-carbon transition as the world's top green energy producer, advancing steadily toward carbon peaking and neutrality. As a sustainable development and transition finance leader, DBS has a robust green financial product matrix, supports corporate green financing across renewables, transportation, agriculture and urban construction that drive low-carbon transformation of high-carbon industries, and seize green finance's dual opportunities for China and Asia.

Aligning with the government's agenda of integrating education, tech and talent and building international sci-tech innovation centers, DBS set up its tech arm in the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City in 2023. Leveraging China's tech talent, we have built a full technological system, boosting DBS's global digital upgrade and aiming to create a world-class sci-tech innovation hub within the Greater Bay Area's cluster.