Australia's Amcor group vows to further step up investment in China to strengthen its market position in the country's packaging sector, bringing advanced packaging technology to China as well as the Asia-Pacific region, to further facilitate the country's carbon neutrality goals.

Eyeing the rapidly growing momentum and potential of China's packaging sector, Amcor recently opened a new innovation center with an investment of $10 million in East China's Jiangsu province, which is the company's second-biggest innovation center after North America.

"China has been a key growth market for Amcor and an innovation center is just one of many important customer-focused investments we are making in the region," said She Xin, president of Amcor Greater China.

"The country's efforts to meet its carbon emissions target offer excellent opportunities for Amcor to contribute our technology and expertise. The center illustrates our long-term confidence in China and our attempt to help drive growth and innovation across the region," She said.

After 30 years of development, Amcor has invested more than $2 billion in China. Located in Shanghai, Amcor Greater China is currently a leading consumption packaging provider in the country, operating from 13 sites located in Huizhou, Zhongshan, Foshan, Jiangmen and Dongguan, Guangdong province; Jiangyin and Suzhou, Jiangsu province; Chengdu, Sichuan province; and Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, with approximately 4,000 employees.

Covering a wide range of flexible packaging products and innovative solutions in various market segments, including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical devices, home and personal care and technical specialty markets, Amcor has grown rapidly in the Chinese market during the past few decades through investment, with a current market share of around 7 to 8 percent in China.

An analyst said China, with its scale and development pace having no match worldwide, remains very attractive for international investment in the petrochemical sector.

The Chinese market's growing size has been encouraging multinational players to continue investing in China for long-term success, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

According to Lu Qiang, vice-president of R&D, Amcor Asia-Pacific, China's "dual circulation "development paradigm, a reference to China's new development pattern in which the domestic market is the mainstay and the domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, will make China the world's largest retail market, which Amcor, as a leading global packaging company, is very optimistic about.

"With all the expertise and knowhow to respond to this market, our confidence and expansion in the Chinese market remain unwavering," Lu said.

Lu added that China is best positioned to achieve its ambitions of carbon neutrality by 2060, and Amcor, which aims to achieve its carbon neutrality by 2050, will aid China's transition to a low-carbon economy, demonstrating its commitment to developing a long-term strategic partnership with the country.

"In the next few years we anticipate China will become the world's largest market in terms of retail and we are looking forward to growing with the country. Amcor vows to further step up investment in China to strengthen our market position in the country's packaging sector, bringing world-advanced packaging technology to further facilitate the country's ambition of carbon neutrality," he said.