GLOBAL ECONOMY DRIVER

As China's early recovery is gaining momentum, observers believe that China holds promise for global businesses.

Christina Otte, an expert with Germany Trade & Invest, an economic development agency, said, "sentiment remains good in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, including among German companies in China."

"If the Chinese economy continues to recover, this will also have a positive impact on the German economy, as both economies are closely linked," she told Xinhua.

China has also consolidated its link with the global business community, with the first International Consumer Products Expo to be held on May 7-10 in Haikou, capital of the southern Chinese province of Hainan, attracting more than 1,300 brands from 69 countries and regions.

Weleda, a natural organic health, wellbeing and beauty company based in Switzerland, hopes to gain a stronger foothold in China and has registered for the event.

"We definitely want to launch more products on the Chinese market, and we also want to expand our sales channels," Heiko Barth, Weleda's regional director for Asia and Pacific, told Xinhua ahead of the expo.

"In such a pandemic period, many products could only be sold in the Chinese market, which now almost recovered from the economic downturn in early 2020," said Xiong Yu, a professor at the Britain-based Surrey Business School in the University of Surrey.

"China's recovery from the pandemic gives hope to the world, Hainan's International Consumer Products Expo is a practical step to bring such hope to other countries," he said.

Natee Taweerifuengfung, president of Thailand-based Siam Think Tank, said that the expo indicates that China can play a key role in helping facilitate the recovery of the global economy, adding China's large consumer market offers massive development opportunities to the world's huge industrial capacities and supply chains.