'Dual circulation' to boost growth (III)

A1: In spite of all the disruptions and uncertainties, we are successfully maintaining our business continuity in China. We are striving with all our efforts and proactively working with local authorities, and suppliers to minimize the impact. Today, we are meeting all our customers' needs.

Overall Merck has had double-digit growth so far. And we've been able to do that because of contributions from all of the three pillars of our business: Life Science, Healthcare and Performance Materials.

A2: We see that China's "dual circulation" development pattern will help with further deepening and stimulating the domestic consumer market, and thus will add a lot to the dynamics and resiliency of China economic environment. The "dual circulation" mechanism is going to further reinforce technology-driven development.

We believe that a "golden decade" for China's semiconductor industry has just begun. We will be accelerating our investments in China, especially in the electronics space. We expect 2021 will be a new record year of our investments in electronic materials and technology in Chinese market.

A3: These initiatives are key elements in shaping and building a stable and healthy business environment. We believe that lowering the financial burden, tax reduction and rental reimbursement policies will further vitalize business activities in China, and will certainly benefit businesses in China.

A4: We all witnessed that China has successfully contained the pandemic, and the business recovery is well on track with strong policy support. We are very confident that China's economy will soon rebound. We have been here for 87 years, and continue to have firm confidence in China.

A5: We believe China's ambitions to be a leading high-tech nation are attainable. And we are committed to playing an active role in this transformation.

We have been in China for 87 years -- we are here to stay, invest and be even closer to our customers. We want to become a fully integrated part of the local ecosystem. We will continue to develop our partnerships with key players in China, enhance our capability across all three sectors, and continue our journey in seeking the best talents in the market.

A6: China is a strategic market for Merck. The Chinese market is becoming increasingly important to Merck. Today, it's our second-largest sales market worldwide. In the Display Solutions business unit (Performance Materials) and the General Medicine & Endocrinology franchises (Healthcare), China is already our No 1 market.

China's hyper growth will continue in the coming years, and this will add a lot of dynamics and resilience to the world economy. We believe China will be the driving force for the global recovery.

A7: We are seeing great progress on streamline administration, improved regulation environment, and upgraded services through authorities as well as faithfully implemented tax and fee reduction policies. The greatly shortened negative lists for foreign investment market access are also attractive to foreign investment. We will continue to build on our "In China, For China" strategy, to improve our local expertise, and extend our footprint in the technology-driven areas.