Editor's note: China Brand Forum sponsored by the People's Daily was held in Beijing on July 16, 2015. It aims to study the difficulties and solve problems that Chinese brands face in brand building, introduce and share the successful experience and practice of international famous brands.

Fast-globalizing Chinese companies are making use of the undergoing Milan Expo as a platform to showcase their technology, innovation and brands. Exhibits from high-speed train replica, a full-scale replica of the moon rover, to baby formula attracts visitors.

Ten years ago, only 0.03 percent of Chinese enterprises had their own core technology with proprietary intellectual property rights. 99 percent had no awareness of applying for patents and 60 percent did not have trademarks. Due to lack of technologies and brands, many firms just use OEM (original equipment manufacturer) factories, contributing more but earning less.

But nowadays, Chinese brands are catching up with the foreign brands and lead in a growing number of industries and fields. Among the top 500 world brands list, Chinese mainland brands account for 29 and China's Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and Jingdong occupy four places among the world's top ten Internet companies.

In recent years, Chinese companies have been ramping up innovation. Data released by the (NBS) National Bureau of Statistics earlier this year show that in 2013 R&D expenditures by medium-sized industrial enterprises amounted to 674.41 billion yuan or 108.64 US dollars, up 12.5 percent over the previous year. Exports of high-tech products reached 660.33 billion US dollars, an increase of 9.8 percent.

Chinese brands boast more and more technical content and the core competitiveness continues to increase.

China is now the world's third largest foreign investor and enterprises’ “going out” has become the norm.

The experience participating in international competition will drive China to accelerate the internationalization of brands and expand its international presence. The world impression on Chinese brands is changing from "Made in China" to "Created in China". 

This article was edited and translated from 《世界品牌500强中，中国内地入选的达29个》, source: People's Daily