Interview: China's deepened opening up a boon for foreign firms, says Honeywell senior executive

A staff member instructs as a visitor tries a flight simulator at the Honeywell booth at the Intelligent Industry &Information Technology Exhibition Area of the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Keren)

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- China's commitment to opening up has injected impetus into the long-term development of foreign companies in China, including Honeywell, Yu Feng, president of Honeywell China, has said.

"China has a diverse range of industrial categories, a favorable environment for innovation, abundant human resources, and so on," said Yu in a recent interview with Xinhua.

With the country's optimized COVID-19 response, Yu said that China will play a significant role in boosting global economic stability and growth, thanks to a better condition for personnel exchanges and business travel between China and the rest of the world.

Honeywell, one of the Fortune 500 companies, has a long history of development in China that dates back to 1935 with its first franchise in Shanghai. Today, all Honeywell's business groups are represented in China, with its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai.

Yu said that in 2022, Honeywell deepened its cooperation with its Chinese partners in areas such as energy transition, air transportation, intelligent building, and intelligent manufacturing to aid in the sustainable development and digital transformation of industries.

Robots conduct welding work at the workshop of an automobile manufacturing factory in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 14, 2023. (Photo by Zhang Jingang/Xinhua)

He said that Honeywell has established a complete localized value chain in China, including research and development, manufacturing, and service, expecting that the company will strengthen cooperation with China's excellent supply chains.

"We are confident in the Chinese market's high-quality development and Honeywell's sustained growth in China because of China's comprehensive advantages, which include complete industrial systems, ultra-large market scale, an increasingly optimized business environment, and long-term positive economic fundamentals," Yu said.

In 2022, foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.3 percent year-on-year to 1.23 trillion yuan (about 178.46 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Commerce said in January.

Against the backdrop of increasing downward pressure on the global economy, foreign investment in China is experiencing high-quality growth, demonstrating the Chinese economy's strong attraction for foreign investment and providing a vivid depiction of the economy's resilience, vitality, and potential, Yu said.

"The Chinese market has grown to become Honeywell's second-largest market and the world's largest growth market, playing an important role in Honeywell's global business strategy," Yu said.