Microsoft’s Alain Crozier on US tech firms in China

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Alain Crozier, CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region, speaks during Fireside Chat on Day 2 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 28, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China. 

American technology companies that want to succeed in China need to take a long term view on the world’s second-largest economy, the chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Greater China Region said on Wednesday.

That means companies should be prepared to invest in research and development over a period of time and help to grow the technology environment in China, Alain Crozier told CNBC during a fireside chat at the East Tech West conference held in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China.

“You have to invest,” he said. “Investing means, at some point, some of your (intellectual property) is going to be developed here. So, you need to not have this fear that everything is going to the negative way. I think that’s a very important one.”

The United States has previously accused China of intellectual property theft.

“The second one is when you come, and you do business somewhere, you also have to contribute very heavily to the market you are in,” Crozier added. “And contribution is not just doing business.”