China's reform and opening up has benefited people around the world, said Panasonic Corp. President Fumio Otsubo in an interview with Xinhua.

Otsubo made the remarks in response to questions concerning China's 30-year drive for reform and opening up and Panasonic's corporate growth in China.

"Thanks to China's 30 years of reform and opening up, Panasonic as well as other foreign enterprises have been able to carry out their operations in China and their products be exported to China, " said Otsubo, adding that the products manufactured in China, on the other hand, have also been able to be on their way to Japan and other countries.

"In such cooperation and coordination, the relations between China and Japan as well as other countries concerned have been enhanced," he said.

"And people around the world have benefited from the fruits produced by China in its unswerving drive for reform and opening up," he added.

"Various nations in the world have thus been more closely correlated both in terms of economy and people-to-people exchanges, " said Otsubo.

Panasonic owes its great success in China to China's reform and opening up, said the Panasonic chief.

Panasonic (then Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd) became one of the first foreign-funded enterprises to enter China more than 20 years ago following the meeting of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of the company, and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping at the launch of reform and opening up in 1978.

Otsubo said that what impressed him most over the past 20-plus years was the substantial progress in the people-to-people exchanges, with batches of Japanese and Chinese employees going to each other's country in pursuit of self-improvement.

During the process, the understanding between Japanese and Chinese employees has been greatly promoted, he said. And this could be viewed as one of the most important achievements in Panasonic's cooperation with China over the past 20-odd years.

"Likewise, people-to-people exchanges between the two nations have made dramatic headway at various levels and in various fields, which contributes a lot to deepening the understanding between the two peoples," said Otsubo.

China's reform and opening up profits every party concerned, said the Panasonic chief, expressing hope that China will, as in the past, continue to pursue the policy of reform and opening up in a bid to bring more benefits to the Chinese people as well as those from around the world.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2008)