Chongqing- Calvin Cheng, Managing Director of East West Bank, spoke at the 2021 Asia-Enterprise of Tomorrow about the health care industry, including remote diagnosis, vaccination for the COVID-19, and how the Bank can further support financing and banking needs for biomedical, pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises on May 21.
Calvin Cheng, Managing Director of East West Bank, speaks at the 2021 Asia-Enterprise of Tomorrow about the health care industry. (iChongqing/ Jin Zhongkai)
Integration opportunities for technology and health care
"I see opportunities based on the technological advances and the 5G area," said Cheng. "This involves areas in a contract research organization, drug development, and managing chronic diseases in China."
Cheng raised his observation about Chongqing, where he believes the aging population remains a concern. The Seventh National Population Census shows that people in the age bracket of 60 and above accounts for 18.70% of China's total population, and people aged 65 or above account for 13.50%.
"Lots of seniors do have chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart diseases, and also high blood pressure situation," said Cheng. However, he added how to manage those diseases for the senior population properly. Through the integration between technology and healthcare will be a problem waiting to be solved.
"Health care certainly serves as one of the major practices at East West Bank in China," said Cheng. "I would certainly be open to work with more partners and reach out to sources to find companies in Chongqing who we can bank with."
"Health care certainly serves as one of the major practices at East West Bank in China," said Calvin Cheng. (Photo/ East West Bank)
Cheng also sees a trend where IT and high-tech startup companies started moving over to southwest China, including Chongqing and Chengdu.
"The more entrepreneurs and capital are moving to the area, the more the city will be able to attract the future industries, including technology, internet, plus health care," Cheng emphasized.
Growth in consumer goods and products
"Chongqing, in addition to its natural beauty, is also located in an important inland area of China," said Cheng. "It has sort of different industries compared to Shanghai and Beijing."
Cheng mentioned that his Chongqing clients range from e-commerce to health care, agricultural area to the liquor business.
"We provide loans for them to grow," said Cheng. "We also provide other banking products and services for their banking operations. Additionally, we provide a different kind of products for international transactions as well."
Meanwhile, he sees Chongqing having substantial growth in consumer goods and products. Brand consumption was promoted through the four economic clusters of Jiefangbei, Chaotianmen, Guanyinqiao, and Jiangbeizui, along with the Jiefangbei tax rebate demonstration zone.
Chongqing's consumer events over 2020 received a positive response from the public as the economy regained stability. (iChongqing file photo)
According to the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, over 300 internationally renowned brands were introduced and 292 first brand stores in the city.
In 2020, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 1.3% to reach 1.7872 trillion yuan (about USD 277 billion) in Chongqing, second only to Beijing and Shanghai. The growth rate was higher than the national average of 5.2 percentage points, ranking 4th in China.
(Du Min, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)