Ralph Haupter, Chairman and chief executive of Microsoft Greater China
Under Ralph Haupter, Microsoft's local unit to transform Chinese companies' businesses with advanced IT
The man in charge of Microsoft Corp's China business thinks the recently announced national strategies to boost the information technology sector, will provide the company, the world's biggest software maker, with greater opportunities, despite a slowing economy.
Ralph Haupter, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft Greater China, is also eyeing technologies like augmented reality or AR and virtual reality or VR for which demand is rising in China.
"I feel very confident that Microsoft can be a key player and a key contributor in that digital transformation of the industry here in China," said Haupter, the first non-Chinese CEO since the United States company entered China in 1992.
"I'm deeply convinced that Chinese companies will very much focus on how digital technology will transform their business. Microsoft can play a pivotal role in this development," the German executive added.
China is pushing forward "supply-side structural reforms", cutting back overcapacity and improving efficiency and quality in manufacturing and many other sectors to stimulate economic growth.
Premier Li Keqiang said during an annual political meeting in March that the reform will be a key strategy in the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).
"To me (this reform means China) is moving from a pure production-oriented key performance indicator model to a real market-oriented model where you very much focus on the demand and try to optimize supply and production towards demand," according to Haupter.
He said it will be a smart way for China to beef up competitiveness and technology innovation, which are the key pillars for real growth in markets.
China is seeing the weakest growth in a quarter century. GDP of the world's second-largest economy grew by 6.9 percent last year, the slowest pace since 1990. China has set the growth target of 6.5 to 7 percent for 2016.
Haupter, who loves skiing and sailing, said China is navigating its economy in the right direction at a pretty fast pace.
"I think six-plus percent GDP growth is still very strong," he said, adding the company will focus on producing value for customers, helping improve their business. "This will always be the sweet spot of contributing to the benefit of China, to the benefit of Chinese companies.
"Some think (AR/VR) will be very strong on the gaming side. I personally believe there is a lot of opportunity on the engineering side, on the production side," he said, adding the technologies have great business potential in many areas from traffic management to real estate and tourism.
Microsoft is developing VR technologies itself, introducing a VR goggle named HoloLens.
He said the company will partner with Chinese developers to expand the scenarios where the HoloLens can be used.
"We are just opening a chapter of very, very different opportunities on personal experiences going forward with the technology of HoloLens," he said.
