the China Development Forum 2026 opened at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya, CEO of TCP Group—the founding company of Red Bull—attended the forum for the second consecutive year and delivered a keynote speech at the symposium on "New Trends and Opportunities in Consumption Growth". Drawing on more than three decades of accumulated expertise in China's beverage industry, and closely aligned with the guiding principles of the 2026 National Two Sessions and the core priorities of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya shared a series of industry insights and practical recommendations focused on unlocking consumption potential through government-enterprise synergy and driving consumption upgrading through a twin focus on supply and demand, offering multinational perspectives on safeguarding high-quality development in the beverage industry and supporting the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand.

Photo: Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya delivered a keynote speech at a symposium of the CDF 2026

At the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, this year's Government Work Report prioritizes expanding domestic demand as its top task, explicitly calling for the in-depth implementation of consumption-boosting initiatives. It outlines core measures such as increasing the intensity of inclusive policies that directly benefit consumers, cultivating new consumption scenarios, and stimulating vitality in lower-tier markets, setting the direction for consumption upgrading and enhancement. In his address, Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya noted that with the advancement of the "Healthy China Strategy", health consumption has evolved from an optional choice to a rigid demand, becoming a core arena for consumption upgrading. Against this backdrop, he called for the government to safeguard industrial development through science-based regulation and institutional innovation, while urging enterprises to meet market demands through product innovation and quality enhancement. It is through this two-way synergy, he emphasized, that consumption potential can be truly unlocked, fostering a virtuous cycle that promotes employment, increases income, and stabilizes consumption, thereby solidifying consumption's role as the principal driver of economic growth.

Innovation-Driven Supply Enhancement Cultivates New Quality Productive Forces in Consumption

Innovation serves as the core engine driving consumption supply and industrial upgrading, and more importantly, as a key enabler of new quality productive forces as outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan. Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya noted that the upgrading of health beverage consumption is deeply supported by fundamental research and technological translation. To this end, he called for further support for enterprises to increase investment in fundamental research and core technologies, and to improve the industry-university-research collaborative innovation system, driving industrial innovation to cater to consumption upgrading. On the regulatory front, he proposed establishing a science-based and dynamic evaluation mechanism for new raw materials and functions. He also suggested optimizing registration procedures for innovative products with proven safety and mature efficacy, and appropriately expanding the scope for simplified change procedures for iterative upgrades of existing products. Through the synergy of policy guidance and industrial investment, the cultivation of new quality productive forces in the beverage industry can be accelerated, creating new consumer demands through premium supply.

Photo: TCP Group drives innovation to unlock diverse consumption vitality

Fair Market Order Ensures Stable Expectations and Breeds New Vitality for Consumption

A fair and orderly market environment serves as a crucial foundation for promoting healthy industry development and driving sustained consumption upgrading, and is a core requirement for building a high-standard market economy system under the 15th Five-Year Plan. As the founder and owner of the global Red Bull brand and the “Red Bull” trademark, TCP Group has always regarded intellectual property protection as a lifeline for its development in China and continues to increase investment in this area. Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya pointed out that creating a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized requires continuous improvement of the market regulatory system, intensifying efforts to crack down on false advertising, counterfeiting, and infringement, and establishing stable and predictable regulatory rules and cross-departmental joint enforcement mechanisms, so as to curb the phenomenon of "Bad Money Driving Out Good" at its source. Only when enterprises that genuinely invest in R&D and uphold quality receive the market returns they deserve, can the industry be steered toward focusing on innovation and quality, thereby providing consumers with better products and services, effectively strengthening consumer confidence, and ultimately enabling people to have the willingness and ability to consume.

Scene Integration Unlocks Potential, Creating New Platforms for Consumption Upgrading

Converting consumer intent into actual purchasing power is a critical task for boosting consumption today. Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya believes the key lies in driving deep integration between consumption policies and scene innovation, aligning with the 15th Five-Year Plan's initiative to create new consumption scenarios, unlocking consumption potential through scene innovation, and weaving consumption into the fabric of daily life. He called for policies that encourage consumer goods companies to continuously expand consumption opportunities and tap into consumer demand, activating the market through the dual engines of "Health+" and "Intelligence+". On the "Health+" front, promote the integration of diverse scenes such as "Health + Sports, Health + Cultural Tourism, Health + Workplace, and Health + Festivals", popularizing scientific health concepts and embedding health consumption into daily life. On the "Intelligence+" front, leverage artificial intelligence and big data technologies to precisely capture consumption trends and optimize the consumer experience, achieving precise alignment between supply and demand. As a practitioner of scene innovation, TCP Group has pushed beyond traditional industry boundaries through diverse initiatives such as creating "The Very Thai Music Festival" IP, strategically engaging in the ice and snow economy, and deepening its presence in holiday consumption scenarios like the Spring Festival. By embedding the energy of Red Bull into the highlight moments of people's lives, the group is generating demand through scenarios and driving consumption through experiences, fostering sustained consumption vitality.

Photo: TCP Group pursues "Health+" initiatives, supporting the Business Schools Desert Adventure

Open Collaboration Expands Horizons, Connecting Regional Consumption into a New Ecosystem

At the starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's steady efforts to expand institutional opening-up and advance the development of a unified national market have instilled strong confidence in foreign-invested enterprises to deepen their presence in the Chinese market and contribute to consumption upgrading. Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya expressed his expectation for further deepening institutional opening-up to facilitate efficient connections between global quality resources and China's mega-market, expanding consumption growth space through open collaboration. At the same time, leveraging the development of a unified national market, he called for removing cross-regional distribution bottlenecks to reduce distribution costs, enabling quality products to reach national markets more efficiently and tapping into the consumption potential of lower-tier markets. As a representative of Southeast Asian enterprises attending the forum, TCP Group is committed to advancing regional economic integration and coordinated consumption development through concrete actions. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, TCP Group invested more than RMB 4.36 billion in China, with the newly constructed and operational TCP Group Red Bull Beverage (Sichuan) Production Base and TCP Group Red Bull Beverage (Guangxi) Production Base. These facilities not only play the role as the industry chain leader in driving the clustered development of upstream and downstream enterprises, but also leverage their strategic locations to serve as key links connecting China with the ASEAN market. By harnessing the dividends of RCEP, TCP Group is deepening the integration of regional industrial and supply chains, contributing new momentum to the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative and the activation of regional consumer markets.

Driven by the dual impetus of consumption upgrading and the "Healthy China Strategy", the health beverage industry is embracing unprecedented growth opportunities. In his concluding remarks, Khun Saravoot Yoovidhya stated that TCP Group will continue to uphold the principle of "In China for China", closely aligning with the core priorities of consumption upgrading and the cultivation of new quality productive forces during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. By deeply integrating the energy and vitality embodied by Red Bull with the "Healthy China Strategy" and sustainable development goals, the Group will continue to support the development of national fitness initiatives through product innovation, scene innovation, and industrial collaboration—embedding the Red Bull energy into the daily work and life of consumers. Through concrete actions as a multinational corporation, TCP Group is dedicated to sustaining consumption vitality, working hand in hand with the Chinese market to jointly advance consumption upgrading and enhancement, and contributing further to the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand.