A maturing market needs new players

China is no longer technically an emerging market, but should be seen as a maturing market with more competition and opportunities, according to the head of a major international business consultancy.

Charles-Edouard Bouee, the French CEO of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, a Germany-based company with some 50 offices and 2,400 employees in 36 countries, said China still faces the challenge of growing its income per capita to avoid the middle-income trap that other countries have fallen into. But the market is changing, with new players emerging in both traditional and tech sectors, and the government is also changing the economy's shape.

"For international companies, it is a new China. It still has a lot of possibilities, but they should not look at China as an emerging market but as a maturing market, where there's more competition, more opportunities. The way you have to operate is different," he said in an interview with China Daily. Bouee is based in Shanghai, Munich and Paris, according to the company's website.