41 trillion dollars
The combined revenue of the Fortune Global 500 companies in 2023 will be about $41 trillion, up 8.4% from last year. The threshold for entry (minimum sales revenue) jumped from $28.6 billion to $30.9 billion.
On October 12, the 2023 Fortune Global 500 Summit was held in Guangzhou. The theme of this year's summit is "New Landscape: Change and Reconstruction". In the context of the accelerated restructuring of the world pattern and order, China's economic development prospects and investment opportunities have become one of the hot topics of the summit. Senior executives from a number of well-known multinational companies attending the meeting said that they continue to be optimistic about China's development prospects and will stick to taking root and deeply cultivating China in the future.
The number of Chinese companies on the list continues to top the list
According to reports, the Fortune Global 500 is a list that measures the volume of large companies, which is one of the most well-known reference standards for evaluating global large companies, and is also a "barometer" for observing the world and regional economy from a side. In 2023, there are 142 Chinese companies on the list (including companies from Taiwan), which continues to rank first among all countries. The United States has 136 companies on the list this year, and China and the United States continue to maintain a double trend, together leading the rest of the world and regions.
From the perspective of revenue indicators, the total operating income of the Fortune Global 500 companies in 2023 will be about 41 trillion US dollars, an increase of 8.4% over last year. The threshold for entry (minimum sales revenue) jumped from $28.6 billion to $30.9 billion.
The Fortune Global 500 summit was held in Guangzhou, where six companies are headquartered on this year's list, said Ariel Shang, editor-in-chief of Fortune. At present, the world has ushered in a new development pattern. In order to meet the challenges, both enterprises and economies need to have a new vision and a new path to promote the reconstruction of a sound order.
Continue to be optimistic about investment opportunities in China
At the summit, about 40 heavyweight guests from the business community and academia held a heated discussion around the theme of "New Landscape: Change and Reconstruction". Executives from a number of multinational companies attending the meeting said that they continue to be optimistic about the development prospects and investment opportunities of the Chinese market.
In the view of Song Weiqun, global senior vice president of Johnson & Johnson and Chairman of Johnson & Johnson China, China's development will bring opportunities to global development, and China's innovation will bring momentum to global development. He said that Johnson & Johnson is an old medical and health company with more than 130 years of history, for Johnson & Johnson, the most important key to high-quality development is innovation. "We are very pleased to see China's economy moving from high-speed growth to high-quality development, which provides a good opportunity for innovative companies like us."
Xu Min, chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble Greater China, said 800 million people traveled during this year's National Day holiday, already more than in 2019 before the epidemic, and per capita consumption has increased. "I think it sends a more positive signal that the overall consumer market is recovering, of course the pace of recovery may be slower than we expected, but it will not shake our confidence in the Chinese consumer market."
At present, China is actively promoting the development of advanced manufacturing, and the accelerated integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing with manufacturing has attracted the attention of foreign institutions. Wenhao Hou, global managing partner at McKinsey, says there are already 50 "lighthouse factories" in China and more will spring up in the future. "The digital transformation of China's manufacturing enterprises has not pressed the pause button, but has pressed the acceleration button." The leading companies have achieved some results in the maturity and advanced nature of digital transformation."
Public information shows that the "Lighthouse factory" represents the highest level of intelligent manufacturing and digitalization in today's global manufacturing industry. At present, the number of "lighthouse factories" in the world has reached 132, and China's "lighthouse factories" have increased to 50, continuing to rank first in the world.
Continue to take root in China and deeply cultivate China
"We will continue to take root in China and deeply cultivate China." In an online interview with the Summit, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Eberle said that Pfizer has been developing in China for decades, and has a very large business network in China, with thousands of employees and a very large consumer base.
In Eberle's view, the Chinese government's planning is very forward-looking, and the goals and missions are very clear. He said that the "Healthy China 2030" plan outline has laid down China's health strategy before 2030. "We recognize that these strategies have a profound impact on what governments do, on what businesses do, and we have to keep pace with the Chinese government."
In recent years, the rapid development of China's new energy industry has also attracted the close attention and investment interest of more and more multinational companies. Zhong Zhiming, president of Singapore Energy Group China, said at the summit that China's new energy industry is booming and the development prospects are very good. The company is very optimistic about the investment opportunities in China's new energy market and has invested in a number of projects in China, and is currently focusing on investment opportunities in photovoltaic new energy and other fields. "The company has accumulated experience and technology in power grid, electricity consumption, energy storage and digital energy management, and we hope to bring these technologies and experience to China to provide users with more unique solutions."
