Alain Crozier, corporate vice-president, Microsoft, and chairman and CEO, Microsoft China

A1 The BRI has provided enormous new opportunities for companies to export their products, technologies and services to economies within the initiative's scope by creating favorable policies and business environments for these activities. Microsoft believes that companies taking advantage of the BRI will benefit from the power of innovative digital technologies to transform their manufacturing, sales, marketing and services, addressing the challenges they often face in global markets and strengthening their competitiveness.

A2 Today, Chinese companies are enhancing their global competitiveness through technological innovation. There is huge potential in both domestic and international markets. The BRI, combined with digital transformation, is likely to continue to accelerate this trend across industries and across continents.

ZPMC is a great example. Already the world's largest manufacturer of port cranes, ZPMC is now working on becoming the total solution provider for the digital port. Using Microsoft Azure IoT solutions and AI, ZPMC connects equipment ranging from giant cranes to shipping containers. Working with Microsoft, it is shifting its business from selling hardware to providing software and services. In doing so it has brought global connectivity to ports around the world and delivered added value to its customers.

A3 Microsoft's technologies and platforms including big data, cloud computing, IoT and artificial intelligence help Chinese companies develop businesses overseas in a seamless and effective way. With 50-plus regions and 70-plus certifications, Microsoft Azure has more regions and more certifications than any other public cloud platform. It is also the leading hybrid cloud platform in the world. It makes companies' IT infrastructure and operations "lighter", reducing costs as they go global, while enabling seamless connectivity between domestic and overseas IT systems so they can accomplish one-time development, worldwide deployment.

We will continue to innovate with China, with Chinese companies and partners, with our cloud platform, innovation ecosystem of more than 17,000 partners, big data, IoT and AI technologies - providing seamless connectivity in a cooperative, collaborative way to help people and organizations in China achieve more.

A4 We appreciate the policies issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to support the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the BRI. We believe that more concrete policies that support the technological transformation of SMEs in China will lead to more effective implementation of the BRI, and Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help these organizations succeed in their international ambitions.