Royal DSM witnessed big, impactful and courageous changes in China

When Royal DSM, a Dutch multinational science-based company in nutrition, health and sustainable living, began trading with China 55 years ago, Dimitri de Vreeze, who joined the company's managing board in 2013, was not even born.

De Vreeze, who is a participant of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2018, or Summer Davos Forum, agreed that DSM is a perfect witness to the achievements in China since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policy 40 years ago.

The changes happening to China in the past decades are big, impactful and courageous, he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily Website on the sidelines of the Summer Davos in Tianjin on Wednesday.

"When we review the world 55 years ago, we thought that Asia, and particularly China, would play a key role for the future and DSM wanted to anticipate that," De Vreeze said.

The company established its first China sales office and first manufacturing facility in the early 1990s and has more than 4,900 employees, seven subsidiaries, 49 affiliates and 25 manufacturing sites in China.

"China is a key market for us … we have more employees in China than in the Netherlands," De Vreeze said.

In 2005, it established an R&D center in Shanghai and in 2011, a China Science and Technology center was established there by the company.

According to DSM's 2017 annual report released in August, its sales revenue in China reached 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) with double-digit growth last year.

Not only having achieved great turnover in the Chinese market, more importantly, DSM, as De Vreeze stated, is also growing faster here and will continue to invest in China.

"We are more than happy to look into any new innovation that comes out of our R&D campus in Shanghai. We are willing to commit ourselves because we decided that China is strategic for DSM. And it also means that if money has to be spent, we are willing to do so," he said.

China is important for DSM, a company pursuing sustainability, as the country is taking the leadership on balancing economic profit, growth and the environment, according to De Vreeze.

In addition, he said DSM has benefitted from China's determination to defend the blue sky, the Belt and Road Initiative and the pursuit of collaborative innovation.

The company has gained significant experience from China, according to De Vreeze. "If you believe in a business and you have a strong business case, then you can do it, because the whole ecosystem, including suppliers, customers, manufacturers, can react very quickly."

For instance, Chinese electric vehicles startups have set a nice example, De Vreeze said. While the whole world looks at business plans and old manufacturers are trying to set bases, here in China there are companies that are two years old and have launched an electrical vehicle within those two years, De Vreeze said.

Video by Lin Siyu