Businesses are benefitting from China's successful control of the COVID-19 pandemic and following stimulus measures. ABB China Vice President Pierre Comptdaer and IKEA China President and CEO Anna Pawlak-Kuliga said China's fast recovery form the health crisis give them confidence in operating in China.

Brick-and-mortar stores had to close doors during the government lockdown period in February and March. It was a mandatory move for social-responsible companies such as IKEA. "As a trusted brand and employer, we had to close our stores because we want to first secure safety and health of our customers and workers," said Kuliga.

The shutdown of offline channels didn't mean a total blackout for businesses especially in China as the country has the world's most developed e-commerce and an equally powerful delivery system that can reach out to every corner of the territory. Retailers across all sectors accelerated digital transformation to survive the pandemic. "We kept our digital channels open," said Kuliga, "at the same time, in March we have launched our app to the market. We also started to test our shops on Tmall."

While retailers were saved by e-commerce, industrial suppliers such as ABB even achieved year-on-year growth thanks to government's spending on new infrastructure. Unlike conventional infrastructure such as roads and ports, the so-called new infrastructure programs spend money to pave the way for commercialization of emerging technologies like 5G, big data and electric vehicles. "There's lot of investment in smart infrastructure. Metro, for example, presents many opportunities around the country," noted Comptdaer. "Also the new infrastructure like investments in data centers and in EV charging is picking up a lot.”