The 6th Digital China Summit is held in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province on April 28, 2023. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

Based in Fuzhou city, East China's Fujian Province, a good number of foreign technology conglomerates including those from the US are embracing new opportunities, as the country places more emphasis on digitalization to drive economic growth. Recently, the city hosted the 6th Digital China Summit.

The meeting, the first of its kind in the digital sector since China optimized its pandemic response, has drawn the participation of hundreds of companies, including leading foreign firms in various tech sectors, ranging from software to healthcare and transportation, seeking further cooperation chances in China, the world largest market in terms of digital production, applications, and user volume.

Unlike the US' attempt to decouple from China, China's openness for global cooperation in digital transformation, a new engine for its development, has drawn growing attention from foreign companies looking to deepen business ties and exploring new possibilities in China's booming market.

New opportunities

At the summit, Microsoft showcased their latest hardware ranging from mini-laptops to big screen tablets, catering to different demographics. Some fairly new software in the Chinese market such as computer housekeeping designed for optimizing computer performance and virus screening was also on show.

In an interview with the Global Times during the summit, the company expressed a positive attitude toward China's digital transformation outlook and how the company can be a better part of the change.

Today's China, with the dual drivers of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, as well as the continuous exploration of a digital China, will usher in broad development opportunities, the company told the Global Times.

While considering the opportunities brought by the accelerated development of the digital economy, Microsoft will continue to focus on technology innovation to help enterprises with digital transformation, zero-carbon sustainability, and technological innovation to promote sustainable development, the company said.

In response to the question about which potential sectors they are particularly optimistic about, the US-based company said that retail, manufacturing, medical care and automotive industries are among the sectors in which they will further develop targeted solutions in order to help companies improve efficiency, reduce costs, and explore new opportunities.

Another US technology company Intel was also excited about its second attendance at the event as Tianyi Cloud's partner which is under China Telecom, one of the country's three biggest state-owned telecom service providers.

Public passion

The new products and technical solutions displayed by the company at this year's exhibition are based on existing cooperation with the Chinese company.

An employee with Intel told the Global Times that they felt strongly about the public passion toward digital products and services and the number of attendees at the event was far higher than in 2022.

When sharing views regarding China's digital transformation, the company's representatives said that they will continue to cooperate closely with their customers and ecosystem partners in China to provide advanced computing power platforms and solutions while jointly expanding development opportunities linked to digitalization.

German company Siemens AG had three booths at this year's exhibition, promoting transportation, construction, and healthcare in the Chinese market.

Siemens Mobility, the transportation unit of the German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG, displayed its latest achievements in China. With its Fuzhou research center, the company has developed safe and reliable digital solutions that have been widely adopted in metro lines in cities such as Fuzhou and Changsha, Hunan Province, as the company embraces China's digital transformation.

Similar solutions from the Fuzhou research center, where more than 90 percent of R&D personnel are local Chinese, have been adopted in metro lines in overseas cities such as Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Huge market potential

Experts said the active participation of top foreign tech companies at the event is an indication that China has remained an attractive destination for global businesses, given the booming opportunities of China's digital transformation.

Backed up by the government support, China's transformation and upgrading of a digitally-driven manufacturing industry has achieved remarkable results in 2022, as reflected in the Digital China Development Report (2022) released at the summit.

By the end of 2022, China had rolled out 2.312 million 5G base stations, and had 561 million 5G subscribers, accounting for more than 60 percent of the technology's global user base, the report said. 

Moreover, the number of Chinese netizens has reached 1.067 billion, and the country's internet penetration rate has reached 75.6 percent now.

Also in the same year, the scale of China's digital economy reached 50.2 trillion yuan ($7.25 trillion), ranking second in the world, according to the report.

"China's digital development, exemplified by the country's homing the largest number of internet user groups and internet coverage in the world, in addition to a popular digital lifestyle which includes mobile cashless payment, will continue to provide enormous opportunities for global corporations," Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times.

Meanwhile, the US government is intensifying its reckless effort to decouple from China in technology and major supply chains, in an attempt to slow down China's digital transformation.

China's digital market is huge and booming, which will benefit not only China but also the entire world, in terms of the great opportunities it creates for international tech companies including those from the US, the expert said.

"The rising importance foreign companies attach to the Chinese market also sends a clear message to their governments that cooperation is always better than self-isolation," Xiang said.