Q3

How do you view China's new reform initiatives aimed at fostering new quality productive forces, such as those to encourage industrial upgrade and technological innovation? Do you see these as opportunities or challenges for foreign enterprises, and why?

Hildebrandt: China's dynamic market, well-established industrial foundation, abundant talent pool, and inclusive atmosphere for embracing new technologies, collectively lay a solid foundation for innovation.

Innovation has always been the key to BASF's success. We are working together with our customers intensively on innovative products and processes for a sustainable future.

In China, 10 percent of our employees are engaged in research and development as we drive innovation to achieve sustainable chemical production and expand our portfolio of sustainable solutions. In addition, we actively foster collaboration with local institutes and partners throughout the value chain to build an innovation ecosystem.

Zheng: China's strategic initiatives, particularly those aimed at industrial upgrade and technological innovation, are seen as opportunities by foreign innovation-driven enterprises like Illumina. These reforms are designed to enhance the ecosystem for innovation and industry collaboration, which align with our commitment to advancing genomic sequencing technology and to improving human health.

In recent years, technological innovations in life sciences have driven the coordinated development of multiple areas such as "industry, academia, research, medicine, and transformation" in China, leading to the continuous emergence of new industries, business forms and models.

Illumina aims to enhance localization and long-term planning in China, and simultaneously unleash the social and economic benefits of new quality productive forces in genetic sequencing technology to support the high-quality development of national health.