I am very happy to come to Japan and speak at this year's Asian Petrochemical Industry Conference.

APIC is one of the most important annual conferences, providing us with an opportunity to get together, share ideas and discuss the prospects of the industry. Today, this prospect is still optimistic. Our industry continues to grow at a faster rate than the overall economic growth. But more importantly, chemistry and chemical products play a key role in society, improving living standards around the world and lifting millions of people out of poverty.

For these reasons, my current optimism towards the chemical industry is the same as my 33 years of work at ExxonMobil. I believe that we are witnessing a new golden age of chemical manufacturing and innovation.

Today, I want to briefly discuss why chemical products are experiencing such growth(here are some chemical information), the important role that chemicals play in promoting social progress around the world, and the responsibilities that this role entrusts to us today and future industry leaders.

Growing demand
Let us first check the demand outlook of our products. The demand for energy and chemicals remains strong, and we expect it will continue to grow in the coming decades.

One obvious driver of this increase in demand is population. In the next 25 years, the global population is expected to grow from about 7 billion today to about 9 billion.

However, perhaps the more important factor for economic growth is the improvement of living standards. As the world's population grows, the world becomes more prosperous. According to the Brookings Institution, the global middle class is expected to more than double by 2030. This is good news. This means that billions of people live longer, healthier, and better lives.

As incomes in developing countries increase, more and more people will have access to consumer goods, cars, and electrical appliances. From smart phones to air conditioners, all these things need energy, and they are made of chemicals.

ExxonMobil estimates that in the next ten years alone, global demand for chemicals will grow by nearly 45%, or about 4% annually. This exceeds the forecast for energy and GDP growth over the same period.

Almost all of the growth will occur in developing countries, two-thirds of which will come from the Asia-Pacific region. We predict that by 2040, the middle-class populations of India and China will each exceed 1 billion.

Industry reaction
The industry is responding to these demographic trends by expanding investment in the value chain.

As we have seen in the history of the entire industry, most of the investment in manufacturing takes place where there is demand-today, the Asia-Pacific region.

But we also see that companies have seized the opportunity to approach cheap and abundant supply of raw materials. The current situation in the United States is similar to the situation in the Middle East decades ago, when the region became a low-cost supplier due to fierce competition for raw materials. As a result of the shale gas revolution, this raw material advantage is being transferred to the United States. American companies including ExxonMobil have announced a wave of capacity expansion to serve overseas growth.

Due to the development of hydraulic fracturing technology, natural gas production in the United States has increased by about 40% in the past ten years, and natural gas reserves have increased by about 50%. The shale revolution triggered a renaissance in the manufacturing industry, especially the chemical industry. According to the American Chemistry Council (American Chemistry Council) statistics, the United States has more than 160 billion U.S. dollars in chemical investment related to shale gas.

Even when energy prices continue to fall, the abundance of unconventional resources in the United States will provide opportunities for the most competitive chemical producers to make attractive investments in markets around the world.

At the other end of the value chain, the industry is responding to changes driven by our customers, especially the desire for more sustainable solutions. Consumers around the world are now more than ever looking for affordable, sustainable, and safe household products that they can trust. Consumers today are also aware of protecting the earth and its resources for future generations to enjoy.