Year-ender: How multinational execs view China's economy in 2020

1. How do you view China's economic performance in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 has impacted the global economy with an expected fall in global GDP of 4.7 percent for 2020. China has been one of the few countries where the economy has been able to achieve some growth for the year because it was able to bring the outbreak in China under control, and IDC expects China's GDP to grow at about 2 percent in 2020.

2. How do you evaluate the Chinese government's efforts in epidemic prevention and control?

The Chinese government has been highly effective in the prevention and control of the epidemic in three key ways:

Firstly, they prioritized rapid action at all levels from the central to local governments.

Secondly, they implemented timely and effective control programs, such as:

• Pro-active testing and tracing of close contacts of COVID-19 cases

• Targeted community lock-downs to reduce the spread of the disease and associated economic impact

• Improved emergency response from the public health services

Thirdly, they developed and implemented many advanced technologies, such as:

• Mobile communications and GPS positioning technologies to control mobility with health and travel codes

• AI-based equipment for rapid contactless temperature measurement

• Rapid effective nucleic acid testing technology

3. What are your comments on China's improvement of its business environment this year?

China's overall business environment continues to improve:

The government first increased efficiency by decentralization. Next there was an increased focus on the value of data in provinces and cities, with Big Data programs improving data integration and utilization. In October, China issued an associated draft policy on the protection of personal information. Thirdly, there was increased marketization, including the introduction of the registration-based initial public offerings system, and fourthly, there was a strengthening in the supervision of the financial sector and reduction of systemic risk.

4. What are your expectations for China's further reform and opening-up?

Under the dual-circulation development paradigm, further opening-up of the China market will balance competition between State-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign enterprises. The government also is trying to further enhance their efficiency.

5. How do you view your company and the industry's performance in China this year?

The consulting industry was affected during COVID-19 and IDC has been impacted from the limiting of in-person meetings, marketing events, and data collection processes. However, IDC continued to conduct all necessary research by leveraging technology so that conferences and surveys moved online and modeling utilized AI.

This year, IDC has written over 200 reports related to COVID-19, and we also created the "5 stage path to enterprise recovery" model to help enterprises know what to expect and how to respond in the different stages of their business journey. Using all this additional research and technology, IDC China has maintained business performance.

6. Do you plan to deepen your company's footprint in China next year? If so, how?

IDC will continue to invest and to expand their business in China.

IDC will continue to provide intensive research on China's market trends, in particular, to help enterprises with their digital transformation strategy and insight into the technology demands arising from the government's 14th Five-Year Plan and associated infrastructure projects. At the same time, IDC will continue to support Chinese companies to develop more global expansion strategies, particularly at this unprecedented time.

Most important, we will continue to develop cases to help form the right technology ecosystems, and to develop all the necessary benchmarking tools for both technology companies and enterprises.