Tony Acciarito, president of Thermo Fisher China
A1: Today, China is the second-largest market outside of North America for Thermo Fisher Scientific and the fastest-growing one. We remain optimistic about China's potential to continue to drive sustainable growth in segments such as healthcare, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical, environmental monitoring and food safety. These focus areas align well with our mission of enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.
With the government plan to boost domestic consumption and further stimulate growth, we believe this will create opportunities for Thermo Fisher to continue to serve our customers and create growth opportunities.
Thermo Fisher - the world leader in serving science - looks forward to working with local governments, research institutes, universities, hospitals and related companies.
From an industry perspective, we continue to expand our local partnerships and invest in China for China.
A2: Thermo Fisher remains optimistic about its presence in China and we continue to invest in serving our customers within the healthcare, food safety, environmental as well as pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical segments.
For instance, China's biopharmaceutical sector is a key focus area that is driving growth. We have compelling solutions to serve our customers, and we recently signed an agreement with the Suzhou New District government to further strengthen the partnership. Thermo Fisher will invest in and establish a production base for single-use biological reactor bags. It is expected to reach full production in 2024 and provide service to biopharmaceutical companies in China.
A4: Talent and continued innovation are the key to the Chinese economy's resilience.
Thermo Fisher aligns with these national strengths. Our company's scale and talent are significant drivers in China. We invest in our people to retain and develop them and ensure they have a clear career development path. And innovation is at the heart of our strategy and success in China as well. To ensure the innovative solutions and technologies can meet local needs, we continue to enhance our "in China for China" innovation capabilities.
For instance, we launched a new Bioprocess Design Center in Shanghai in 2018 to bolster our innovative capabilities in biologics in China. And we opened our Food and Beverage Customer Solution Center in Beijing this year to enable scientists to develop next-generation chromatography and mass spectrometry solutions for improving food quality and safety for China's consumers.
