Global heads of multinational companies expressed confidence in the Chinese economy and said they expect to deepen cooperation with Beijing during meetings with top municipal officials on the sidelines of the recent Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum 2023.

Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek Holdings, said that future opportunities are in China, and that he hopes China will continue serving as an important driving force for global productivity growth despite twists and turns on the way of globalization. He added that the Beijing market is important to the company as it boasts huge development opportunities in fields like finance, healthcare, and digital economy.

Beijing is vigorously developing the biomedicine industry and has both technological innovation advantages and rich clinical resources, which is highly in line with the development vision of Johnson & Johnson, said the company's chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato. He added that the company will continue expanding investment and business presence in Beijing and contribute to improving the city's capacity for biomedical innovation.

For Jon R. Moeller, global chairman, president, and CEO of Procter & Gamble, one of the great advantages in development that Beijing offers is abundant technologies. He said that the company is confident in expanding its investment in Beijing. Based on local R&D, the company will introduce more new technologies and products to the whole country, and bring Chinese innovations to the world, he added.

With production, sales, and R&D branches set up in Beijing, P&G built an innovation center in Shunyi district in 2010 and started its second-phase expansion project this year.

German carmaker BMW is also expanding its presence in Beijing. BMW upgraded its R&D center in Beijing to its headquarters in China, making it its largest R&D facility outside Germany.

Thrilled by the pursuit for technological innovation reflected in China's development policies, its chairman Oliver Zipse said Beijing develops fast in smart vehicles, and BMW will continue increasing R&D and investment and looks forward to receiving support from Beijing in terms of policies and application scenarios in the field of autonomous driving.

Data shows that Beijing's R&D investment intensity was around 6% on average for the past five years, becoming one of the major attractions for foreign companies investing in Beijing.