Interview: CIIE connects global enterprises with Chinese market, facilitates cooperation, says Honeywell senior executive

NEW YORK, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is a wonderful platform for the world's companies to showcase their products and services to the Chinese market, creating cooperation opportunities, a senior executive of U.S. industrial conglomerate Honeywell has said.

"We found it's a great place to introduce or launch products in the China market," Ben Driggs, president of Honeywell Global High Growth Regions, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"It's been a very good forum for us to, in a very rapid way, showcase Honeywell technologies to a broad set of the companies and players in the Chinese economy," he said. "It's been a very successful event for us."

The CIIE is the world's first import-themed national-level expo, and its fifth edition will be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10. Honeywell was one of the first global companies to join the first CIIE in 2018, and will be attending the event for the fifth time this year.

The Chinese market is vital to Honeywell's global presence and the company hopes to deepen collaborations with its Chinese partners, Driggs said.

"It's a country where we've been very pleased to have enjoyed a lot of growth, and we continue to expect it to be an important part of our portfolio," he said.

Honeywell's business is "well aligned" with market demand and industry trends in China and the company sees "a lot of new opportunities" there especially when the country is striving for sustainability goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, Driggs added.

"There's excellent potential in sustainability, given the scale of the market and given the commitments that are being made," he said, adding "there'll be continuing great opportunities in automation."

At the past four CIIEs, Honeywell has displayed nearly 100 innovative technologies, products, and solutions.

At this year's event, Honeywell plans to display more than 60 innovative products and ready-now solutions that cover five areas including energy transformation, aviation, intelligent building, smart supply chain management and life science, aiming to further explore the CIIE opportunities, according to the company.

Honeywell has a long history of development in China that dates back to 1935 with its first franchise in Shanghai. Today, all Honeywell's business groups are represented in China, with its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai.