The Belt and Road Initiative is creating massive development opportunities, which will connect the whole region along the "new silk road" in order to improve local economic growth, said Peter Tyroller, the Bosch Group's board member.[Special coverage]
Bosch as a multinational giant headquartered in Germany has 450 subsidiaries and regional companies in some 60 countries as of the end of 2016, among which a lot of plants are located in countries along the Belt and Road.
"In the meantime, Chinese companies are playing a major role in carrying out infrastructure projects along the Belt and Road," said Tyroller, who is also the group's top manager in charge of the Asia-Pacific region.
With good links between its subsidiaries in China and those in other Belt and Road countries like Myanmar, Bosch is able to react quickly and offer its solutions to new projects including new airports, harbors and highways.
Since early 2017, Bosch has taken China Railway Express as a logistics alternative to transport parts and products from Germany all the way to Chongqing, southwestern China, where a Bosch plant is located.
Tyroller pointed out that the direct freight train service connecting China and Europe enables Bosch to deliver goods with shorter cycle and lower cost to the Far East.
"Asia-Pacific has been the growth engine for Bosch since years and will remain the engine for the years to come," Tyroller said, adding that China with 60 percent of the entire turnover in the Asia-Pacific region plays the major role.
"The innovation potential of China has been underestimated for quite a long time." He underlined that the Chinese young people graduating from domestic universities or coming back to homeland after their overseas study offer huge innovation potential, which is boosted by the Chinese government with favorable policies as well.
As for Bosch, it has currently more than 80 percent native employees in China, even in the Research & Development and management. For example, the headquarter with an Asia Pacific R&D Center for Bosch blue power tools for the emerging market is located in China.
