What business leaders are watching at CIIE: Part II

Tony Acciarito, Thermo Fisher China CEO

What are the highlights of your exhibits at the China International Import Expo? Are you launching any new products, technologies or solutions?

Thermo Fisher has a 500-square-meter booth at the Medical Equipment & Health Care Products Hall, showcasing around 30 products serving different vertical industries like healthcare, pharma & bio-pharma, environment and food safety. We have established a quick testing station that provides a hands-on experience for visitors to experience how our products can enhance their life. There's also a virtual reality (VR) zone in the lab that enable visitors to access our advanced technology in real time. What we really show our partners, customers and the China market is that Thermo Fisher has capabilities in innovation, and we innovate "in China for China".

In terms of deals, what do you expect from the CIIE? Whom are you targeting?

We expect to sign around 10 Memorandum of Understanding during the expo on such areas as academia, pharma and biopharma, metal detection. We have a number of companies (mostly Chinese) that we are planning to attract in this expo. From organization perspective, we are looking forward to working with local government organizations, research institutes, universities, hospitals as well as companies. From industry perspective, we expect procures from our key-focused vertical markets including healthcare, food safety, environmental as well as pharma and bio-pharma.

Do you think the CIIE could eventually help drive the development or upgrade of the industry your company is in, and your company's strategy in China?

CIIE is a significant move for the Chinese government to actively open the Chinese market to the world. For Thermo Fisher, China is a critical market. Our priority in Chinese market is to help our customers to accelerate their innovation and to actualize the blueprint of "Healthy China 2030" by providing multiple solutions in precision medicine, environment and food safety, etc. At the same time, CIIE provides an open platform to better understand China market. With abundant industry resources, CIIE will definitely help us to better understand the local needs and ensure our innovative solutions and technologies work for China market.

What's your view on China's pledge to further open up its markets to foreign companies? How would that benefit your business? Any specific examples?

The reform and opening-up has created a huge market and enormous demand especially for industrial products. Thanks to the opening up, we have the opportunity to expand our footprint in China and become an organic part of China's economy. Today China is the second-largest country by revenue for Thermo Fisher, representing 10 percent of total global revenue in 2017 and achieving double-digit growth. We've been here for over 35 years. We are here to celebrate the opening of China that we believe as something that will create more opportunity for China market. For instance, our key industrial focus includes precision medicine, digital and biopharma which are all aligned with government's priorities.

What is your forecast for China's economy in the next three years? What key issues will you be watching for?

I remain optimistic about the economy, because as we engage closely with customers, we find that there is a real need to want to work with us and that is my gauge of whether we're going to be successful or we are not. And this is how the CIIE is a great forum for us to understand whether the companies actually see a need from us. I think China has many promising markets to focus on, such as healthcare, environment, pharma and bio-pharma they are all growing fast. And that tells me that the government is really investing in China for the long term, it's not a short-term strategy. I'm glad to see that our products and solutions are in align with them.