Nation 'most promising' long-term market for Aveva

China remains "the most promising long-term market", not only for its scale and innovation, but also because of the country's long-term vision regarding sustainability, energy and efficiency, the top executive of industrial intelligence software developer Aveva said.

"China has gone so far in terms of sustainability, energy and efficiency over the past 10 to 15 years and is determined to go further," Caspar Herzberg, CEO of the United Kingdom-headquartered company, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"More importantly, such sustainability effort is not a five-year plan but a long-term national vision, which is very impressive for multinationals, and an interesting market for Aveva."

This, Herzberg added, creates an environment that "we believe aligns very well with what Aveva brings as a solution provider of industrial intelligence".

"I believe that China is a really important market for us and we want to have a place here. We've been here a long time and we want to be here for a longer time."

The company sees significant opportunities in the Chinese market and has a positive outlook for its business in the country, he said.

Aveva said recently that it had established a new customer experience center in Beijing, demonstrating its firm determination to develop in the Chinese market.

The center is its fifth such globally, following ones located in the United States and the UK.

Herzberg said the overall level of digitalization in the Chinese market is "very high", and companies here desire to use data to become more operationally efficient or more sustainable.

Cui Jingyi, global vice-president and general manager of Aveva China, said more companies have made digital transformation a major strategy to survive and gain a competitive advantage.

"Many of them really pay much attention to transforming from traditional operations into more digital, more data-driven operations," she said.

This is where Aveva can help as it leverages industrial software and offers a comprehensive end-to-end solution that spans design, engineering, procurement construction and operation as well as optimization, she added.

Cui said the company has more than 7,000 customers, including Sinopec Engineering Group and China Nuclear Power Design Co, as well as more than 70 local partners in China.

Global market consultancy IDC has predicted previously that 65 percent of the global GDP would be driven by digitalization by 2022 and would drive over $6 trillion of information technology spending from 2020 to 2023, with China being an important driver.

"China also put a lot of emphasis on data, and the data has now become not just data itself, but also a kind of asset. It offers us more opportunities to help our clients here generate more value," Cui said.

"We'll continue to invest in this market. We want to provide a better service for customers here. We want to look for more collaboration with partners here to better engage and grow together with the market."

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn