(Yicai) March 26 -- Almost 100 foreign business executives, including Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook and Pfizer’s Chairman Albert Bourla, attended the recent China Development Forum, with low-carbon development, artificial intelligence, ‘big health,’ and new consumption some of the key areas of investment for multinationals seeking opportunities in the country.

The China Development Forum, a key international business conference held in Beijing every year since 2000, allows high-level officials to explain China's economic playbook to foreign business executives. This year’s two-day event wrapped up yesterday.

Also in attendance were Exxon Mobil Chairman Darren Woods, Robert Bosch Chairman Stefan Hartung, BHP Chief Executive Mike Henry, and Advanced Micro Devices Chairwoman Lisa Su.

Heraeus Group’s Chairman Jan Rinnert told Yicai that China is one of the German company’s key markets and it is committed to making ongoing investments in the country. 

The outlook is exciting, Rinnert said at the CDF, as the maker of medical devices, sensors, and metals will break ground on or finish five new local factories this year. Just a few days ago, it also bought into a local startup that makes advanced materials. 

Rinnert is paying special attention to the new business opportunities provided by China's shift to green and carbon technologies and artificial intelligence, he said. They may be packaging solutions for chips which are becoming increasingly small and more demanding in terms of heat dissipation, or materials and technologies for the global solar and new energy supply chains concentrated in China.

After two years of construction and a CNY600 million (USD83.1 million) investment, Heraeus will open its quartz plant in China’s Liaoning province this autumn, doubling its production capacity. In the second half of this year, a ceramic substrates factory in Jiangsu province will come online. A unit of the company also intends to start building work in May on a chemicals plant in Shanghai.

Geoff Martha, chairman of US medical devices supplier Medtronic, said at the forum that he is more convinced than ever that China will become the world's biggest medical market due to an aging population, rapid urbanization, and its basic medical insurance system. By 2035, more than 300 million citizens of China will be aged over 65, he pointed out.

China is expected to become a key source of next-generation innovations in medical technology, Martha said, adding that the nation is the only market where the company has set up regional venture capital fund to invest in local startups.

Takeda Pharmaceutical will continue to step up its investments in the Chinese market, according to Christophe Weber, president and CEO of the Japanese drugmaker. A local unit secured licenses to sell three novel medicines in the past three months and two new applications are expected to be approved this year.

The maker of cancer drugs and vaccines aims to make China its second-biggest global market by 2030, according to a strategy it unveiled in 2022.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Emmi Laine