CCTV News: The 2025 Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum is being held in Beijing. In 2025, the "circle of friends" of the forum continued to expand, and the number of multinational companies participating in the meeting for the first time hit a new high. The guests at the meeting said that the "magnetic suction" of China's openness continues to increase, allowing more and more foreign-invested enterprises to invest more firmly in China.
This China Development Forum, the number of multinational enterprises participating in the meeting for the first time hit a new high. 17 enterprises from 8 countries sent formal representatives to the forum for the first time in 2025, accounting for 20% of the total number of enterprises.
Many heads of multinational companies have brought the latest plans to expand investment, establishing R&D centers in China, and accelerating the layout of high-tech and high-value-added links, which is becoming a common choice for many foreign-funded enterprises.
Ke Haozhe, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of ZF Group, introduced that they are constantly expanding their factory network and they have just opened two factories in Wuhan. In other cities, they have 50 factories and 4 technical centers in China. And a new technology center was established in Guangzhou and Jinan.
Mercedes-Benz Group Co., Ltd. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercedes-Benz Group Co., Ltd., introduced that in the past few years, they have greatly improved the innovation strength of Mercedes-Benz Beijing R&D Center and opened a second R&D center in Shanghai to better contact with the technology clusters in Shanghai and surrounding areas. In order to comprehensively upgrade their technology and product, they will invest no less than 14 billion yuan in the next few years to continue to strengthen their business in China.
In the two-day forum, Chinese and foreign guests had in-depth exchanges on current hot topics such as expanding institutional opening, green and low-carbon, artificial intelligence, and boosting consumption. The guests at the meeting said that the release of positive signals such as expanding domestic demand in all aspects, cultivating and strengthening emerging industries and future industries, and expanding international cooperation space in expanding opening up will allow more and more foreign-invested enterprises to invest more firmly in China.
