DSM keen on fueling innovation in China

By Du Juan (China Daily) Updated: 2014-07-02 07:11

China will need to find quick fixes for issues like food security and pollution during its rapid urbanization process, a top official of Royal DSM, the Netherlands-based multinational life sciences and materials sciences company, said on Monday.

China is no longer the manufacturing machine of the world and cannot depend on it for sustained growth, said Feike Sijbesma, chief executive officer of DSM.

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"Instead, China needs to focus more and more on innovation, for example, on new alternative energies such as solar, wind and bio, and new ways of manufacturing food to sustain growth," he said.

DSM is keen to partner with China in these sectors, he said, adding that food and energy have become key growth areas for the company.

Sijbesma said that there has been a lot of migration from rural to urban areas in recent years in China. "Every time someone goes from a rural area to a city, we lose a food producer and gain a consumer," said Sijbesma.

"Urbanization and economic growth go together and as such put lots of pressure on the food system," he said. "China's food safety and quality can be further improved," he said.

As the consumption power of China's middle class grows, the public requires higher standards for food quality, which also explains the boom in the imported food market in first-tier cities in the country.

Premier Li Keqiang has highlighted China's food security issue several times during the State Council meetings this year, saying that the country must put in place a strict food security supervision system.

China's food safety law, which was drafted in 2009, was submitted to the authorities for final approval last week, and is expected to fill the gaps and adjust to the changes.

As one of the biggest food ingredient manufacturers in the world, DSM opened its China Animal Nutrition Center in Bazhou, a city in Hebei province, in May.