APEC CEOs eye on China’s market potentials despite divided views on GDP growth

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Just 28 percent of APEC business leaders remain “very confident” about revenue growth in 2016, and they’re often thinking of how to thrive in a slow-growth world and how to be competitive in the new economy.

APEC CEO confidence on near-term revenue growth is fragile. PwC

To help answer these queries, auditing house PricewaterhouseCoopers launched its 2016 APEC CEO Survey at the APEC CEO Summit in Lima, the capital of Peru. The survey interviewed 1,154 business leaders from 21 APEC economies between May and July 2016, over half of whom are in organizations with over 1 billion US dollars in annual revenue.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski led the opening ceremony of the APEC CEO Summit in Lima, the capital of Peru, on November 18, 2016.

For the CEOs, doing business in the Asia-Pacific region with multiple transitions is challenging, and one reason behind that is burgeoning demand for services just as industrial demand from China slows.

The survey shows APEC CEOs are divided on how fast China will grow over the next three years, which comes out of the uncertainty that China’s rebalancing-restructuring its economy from manufacturing to more service-based sectors.

APEC CEOs are divided on how fast China will grow over the next three years. PwC

Regardless of the wide range of CEO views on China’s near-term growth pace, business leaders in China, both domestic and foreign, plan on stronger partnerships and brands as well as inland expansion to adapt to new market realities.

“APEC business leaders do not merely worry about the current economic slowdown, but also have the long-term development vision. China is the best example,” Raymund Chao, chairman for PwC in Greater China, said in the report.

“Despite slowing economy, China’s economic scale and growth will not have an impact on their investment and business expansion in China. For APEC economies, China is still the most potential market where they can promote new products and establish partnerships," Chao added.