We make coatings more exciting Interview with Xie Peijun, Asia Pacific Business Director, Dow Coatings Materials.

Left: CHIA PUAY KOON, Asia Pacific Business Director, Dow Coatings Materials Business Unit
Right: Yang Jing, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Coatings Industry
Paint Industry: Could you brief us on the current business development of Taoshi Coating Materials Business Unit in China?
PUAY KOON: Dow Coatings Materials business unit in China's market development is still rapid, and in many ways led the world trend. Many years ago, the need to introduce foreign headquarters developed technology to domestic production. In order to adapt to the strong demand in the Chinese market, the rapid growth of domestic research and development team, now, the domestic laboratory has been fully capable of developing suitable products for the local, and even began to export to the international market, such as the Shanghai Dow Research and Development Center in China produced anti-formaldehyde products, has been successfully applied to Italy, France and other marketsThis reflects a significant increase in the position of the Chinese market.
: Has the Sino-US trade war affected Dow's coating materials business in China? What does Dow think of the Chinese market?
PUAY KOON: The Sino-US trade war has an impact on Dow's business in China, but it is under control. Dow Coating Materials has 10 plants in the Asia Pacific region that basically meet the needs of the Chinese market, and we are actively coordinating production in other countries with a small number of U.S. products. China is Dow's second largest international market in the world, we attach great importance to and are optimistic about the development of the Chinese market, so the company has actively taken a series of measures, including optimizing the supply chain to reduce the impact.
The rapid pace of change in the needs of Chinese consumers is rare around the world, but Dow has always adhered to the concept of customer first, listening to understand the pain points of end customers, feedback to research and development to improve, to help customers solve problems. On the other hand, we work with our customers to innovate and develop solutions that meet individual needs.
: We see Dow actively promoting digital transformation, what have been the achievements of these two years of transformation? What changes has digitalization brought to the company's growth?
: China is at the forefront of the global digital economy, so digital transformation is particularly important in China. In China, Dow is the first company in the materials science industry to have a high-volume laboratory, using digital means to increase the efficiency of experiments by 10 to 100 times. Launched in Shanghai in February 2018, Dow Asia Pacific Digital Business Center is an important organizational hub for reconstructing the company's digital strategy and has been instrumental in developing digital marketing tools, such as software that presents Dow products using virtual reality technology to help customers experience Dow solutions more intuitively.
official flagship store of Dow 1688 was officially launched in December 2018, digitizing the purchase-to-sales side. Collaboration between offline sales networks and online digital platforms will help Dow capture customers in the long tail market and bring sales increments. In addition, we hope to better understand customer needs, accumulate market insights, enhance online and offline business capabilities, and continuously improve the customer experience through the analysis of first-hand data. In addition, our company is also building its own platform, for a year or two can also achieve the function of online purchase.
Paint Industry: What has Dow done in sustainability?
PUAY KOON: Sustainability is an important part of Dow values. Dow's 2025 Sustainable Development Goals are designed to develop breakthrough and innovative products that can have a positive impact on the lives of 1 billion people, while saving the company $1 billion in cash flow by adhering to the concept of value for nature in business decisions.
coatings business is committed to providing low energy consumption, low pollution, reduce carbon emissions product solutions. For example, ROPAQUETM opaque polymers introduced many years ago, followed by EVOQUETM pre-composite polymer technology, are aimed at reducing the amount of titanium dioxide to improve the efficiency of raw materials and paint performance, and promote sustainable environmental development. EvoquetM Pre-Composite Polymer Technology won the 2013 U.S. President's Green Chemistry Challenge Award and the U.S. Science and Technology Innovation Award. It is also worth mentioning that the PerimoTM bio-based acrylic emulsion was awarded the 2019 Sustainability Award by the Business Intelligence Group in September 2019, which is made from natural bio-raw fermentation products that are aggregated to effectively reduce carbon emissions and have the function of low release and purification of formaldehyde. This award is a great recognition of Dow's commitment to the concept of sustainability over the years.
Coatings Industry: What is Dow Coating Materials Business's development strategy for the past five years? Which areas are you mainly bullish on?
PUAY KOON: Customer, employee development, market, research and development and production of these five aspects are our focus, with customers to collaborate and innovate, strengthen cooperation upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, increase research and development efforts, drive technology upgrades; That's where Dow is going.
Dow Coatings and Materials business is involved in a number of fields, such as construction and industry, the needs of Chinese customers are becoming more diverse, personalized, but also to promote our continuous technological innovation process. We are concerned about several policy-led industries, such as industrialization of architectural coatings, assembly-type internal integration, industrial coatings low VOC, etc. will be our more concerned about several major directions.
Ms. Xie Peijun was appointed Director of Dow Coatings Materials Asia Pacific in April 2019, responsible for setting the strategic direction of the business and leading the team to drive sustainable and profitable growth in the Asia Pacific region.
In 1996, Ms. Xie was appointed as an Asia Pacific Chemist in Dow's Specialty Chemicals Business Unit, where she was responsible for providing technical services to markets such as personal care and construction, and has been the Head of Technical Services and Development in the Asia Pacific region of dow's construction market since 2000, as well as regional product supervision. Since 2004, she has been the Marketing Manager of the Specialty Products Business Unit, and later in 2005 she was the Marketing Development Manager for Dow Specialty Latex Asia Pacific. She has been a solvent-based product marketing manager in Dow Coatings Materials since 2009, a regional account manager in 2010 and a business manager for Dow Coating Materials Southeast Asia in the same year. In April 2012, Ms. Xie was appointed Director of Marketing for Dow Coatings Materials Asia Pacific, and in 2017 became Director of Product Asia Pacific for Dow Coatings Materials, where she was responsible for pricing and simplifying the product portfolio to suit market engagement strategies, as well as asset optimization to maximize the profitability of the acrylic division.
holds a Master's degree in Materials Engineering from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and an MBA from Northwood University in the United States.
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