MNCs bullish on China's consumption drive
Editor's Note: As China launches its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), policymakers are strengthening coordination between the "Export to China" and "Shopping in China" campaigns. The effort signals a clear commitment to expanding imports while promoting high-quality consumption. To explore what this means for global business, we invited executives from multinational corporations to share their perspectives on the opportunities in China's vast market, the role of their China operations in global strategy, and their outlook for the years ahead.
Q1 China's GDP grew 5 percent in 2025, reaching 140.19 trillion yuan ($20.29 trillion). For 2026, the government targets growth of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent, with a planned deficit ratio of around 4 percent. How do you assess the credibility and policies backing this target? Amid moderating global demand, what does China's relative growth certainty mean for your company's global capital allocation, earnings outlook and investor expectations? Does the combination of proactive fiscal policies and accommodative monetary measures reinforce your confidence in sustaining or expanding operations in China?
Depoux: The 2026 growth target of 4.5 percent to 5 percent is a strategic calibration. It is not a sign of uncertainty, but a necessary trade-off to achieve higher-priority objectives. This calibration creates fiscal and political buffers to drive the reform and address the real problems without the pressure of chasing high growth at all costs. Importantly, China is not investing less, but investing differently with more precision, discipline and patience. This year, China announced the headline budget deficit ratio will be maintained at a record high level of 4 percent of gross domestic product. That signals a continued willingness to keep the fiscal taps open to boost demand while using government borrowing to keep the economy from cooling further. Investment for short-term GDP growth will be reduced or even cut, and massive amounts of money can be redistributed to the real needs of China's transformation, namely technology and the people. In this way, we might see slower growth, but it will create a stabler, stronger and more resilient foundation, which is critical for multinationals to do business in China.
Zhang: Grupo Bimbo consistently regards China as one of its most strategically vital markets globally. Within our corporate architecture, China has evolved beyond a vast consumer market to become a strategic hub that integrates manufacturing, a global innovation engine and supply chain resilience. The rapid iteration and high-frequency innovation within China's baking industry have compelled us to build significant competitive advantages. Currently, we operate two R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai, with the Beijing center officially recognized as a "foreign-invested R&D center". This allows our China operations to function as an innovation high ground, where the product launch cycle has been significantly shortened.
Cheng: The target sends a clear signal to "promote qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy". We remain optimistic about the long-term logic of China's economic growth. The cultivation of "new quality productive forces" has entered a critical phase, with artificial intelligence and robotics technologies demonstrating vigorous vitality. Simultaneously, Chinese enterprises' global layout is maturing. These positive developments create a transparent and predictable environment for markets and investors, both domestically and internationally, while also opening-up new opportunities for innovation and development in the banking sector.
DBS is currently in a new stage of growing and co-creating value in China. We recognize the profound resilience of China's economic development. Moving forward, we will continue to leverage Singapore's advantages as a leading Asian financial hub, rooting ourselves in China to support China's real economy in advancing toward higher-quality development.
