SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Apple (NASDAQ:) CEO Tim Cook dinner on Saturday used his first public remarks on his go to to China to reward the nation for its speedy innovation and its lengthy ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, in keeping with native media reviews.

Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner on Saturday used his first public remarks in China in recent times to reward the nation for its speedy innovation and its lengthy ties with the U.S. iPhone maker, in keeping with native media reviews.

Cook dinner is in Beijing to attend the China Growth Discussion board, a government-organised occasion being held once more in full pressure after the nation ended its COVID controls late final 12 months.

In addition to Cook dinner, the occasion is being attended by senior authorities officers in addition to CEOs of companies reminiscent of Pfizer (NYSE:) and BHP.

“Innovation is creating quickly in China and I consider it should additional speed up,” Cook dinner was quoted by The Paper information outlet as saying.

His go to comes at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington and as Apple has been seeking to scale back its provide chain reliance on China and shifting manufacturing to new up and coming centres reminiscent of India.

Final 12 months, manufacturing on the world’s largest iPhone manufacturing facility run by Apple provider Foxconn was closely disrupted after China’s zero-COVID insurance policies fuelled employee unrest.

Cook dinner additionally visited an Apple Retailer in Beijing on Friday, footage of which went viral on Chinese language social media.

Throughout his speech, Cook dinner additionally mentioned schooling and the necessity for younger individuals to be taught programming important pondering abilities, asserting that Apple plans to extend spending on its rural schooling programme to 100 million yuan, the native media reviews mentioned.