'New development stage' embraced by multinational firms
A1: As China enters a new development stage and strives for the new development paradigm, an open economy with higher standards and better quality will be served as a driving engine for global growth. Also, the government has taken a series of measures to optimize the business environment, which brings strategic opportunities for Bosch and other foreign enterprises. Bosch remains optimistic about the long-term development of the Chinese market and will adhere to its "local for local" strategy. Having established deep roots in China over 110 years, Bosch continues to invest in key sectors and develops China as a key R&D and innovation hub for the group, providing more competitive products and services.
A2: High-level opening up, innovation driven development, advanced manufacturing, green development are one of the top priorities in China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to achieve the 2035 vision. Bosch is pleased to see that China has taken the green development into the central guiding policy. The action plan of carbon neutrality which will be issued soon is supposed to give enterprises a clear direction to determine their low-carbon development strategies. As the first globally operating industrial enterprise to achieve climate neutrality, Bosch is willing to share experiences to support other partners' progress toward their goals.
Also, the 14th Five-Year Plan period is critical to the development of intelligent connected vehicles. Bosch expects that the government will continue to build intelligent infrastructure, 5G and other communication network technologies to accelerate the coordinated development of vehicles and roads. As the "Software Defined Vehicle" has become the consensus of the industry, Bosch has proposed a solution of "Combine the Software and Hardware". At the beginning of 2021, Bosch formally established a new division called Cross -Domain Computing Solutions, bringing together hardware and software development for new automotive electronics architectures.
A3: In line with China's new development paradigm, innovations in key technologies are seen as the important supporting factors for quality growth. Bosch will continue to invest in China and adhere to its "local for local" strategy. At the same time, Bosch regards China as an important innovation hub for the group.
In the field of home appliances, the new BSH Home Appliances R&D Center in Nanjing has been officially come into use. In terms of local cooperation, Bosch and Qingling have established fuel cell systems joint venture to develop and market fuel cell technologies and solutions. Bosch and Weichai Power announced their success in increasing the thermal efficiency of Weichai's truck diesel engine to 50 percent in 2020. Bosch has also partners with Tsinghua University to establish the Joint Research Centre on Machine Learning to advance artificial intelligence research.
A4: Concrete and effective initiatives taken by Chinese government, including the Foreign Investment, updated negative lists in pilot free trade zones and high-level opening-up under the new development paradigm, have further help to foster an improved investment and business environment. All of these proactive approaches released the positive signals for China's commitments in promoting economic globalization, which will boost inbound foreign investment and provide strategic opportunities for the enterprises like Bosch. For example, the rapid recovery of China's economy and optimized business environment are the growth driver for Bosch's operations in China. Bosch China finally achieved positive growth and registered a record high sales revenue of 117.3 billion yuan ($18.13 billion) in 2020, which made China the largest single market for the Bosch Group worldwide for the first time.
A5: The proposal of the carbon neutral target reflects that China will play an important huge role in climate action. To support that, Bosch has set itself clear sustainability targets "New Dimensions – Sustainability 2025", focuses on six megatrends, including climate, energy, water, urbanization, globalization and health. With respect to all these issues, we focus on those aspects where we can contribute the most in terms of protecting the environment and people.
In the fields of climate, Bosch marked a significant milestone in 2020 when it became the first globally operating industrial enterprise to achieve climate neutrality in terms of manufacturing and external energy acquisition in more than 400 locations worldwide. In the past few years, Bosch China has invested 250 million yuan in environment protection to save water and energy, reduce waste and carbon emissions. Compared to 2011, Bosch's relative carbon dioxide emissions from production activities in 2020 have been reduced by 52 percent year-on-year. In the future, Bosch plans to contribute China's green development by sharing the technologies and experiences from more than 1,000 energy-efficiencies projects and provide an advisory service.
