Shanghai going all-out to woo foreign investors

Shanghai's continued efforts to make its business environment more amiable will consolidate foreign investor confidence, which is conducive to the city's high-quality economic growth driven by technology innovation, said officials and company executives.

The comments came during a city promotion conference earlier this month, which was part of the eighth China International Import Expo held in Shanghai from Nov 5 to 10.

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said during the conference that the next five years would be critical for the city to grow into a modern metropolis with international influence. To better achieve that goal, Shanghai will initiate more reforms and advance its openness to come up with more internationally competitive policies and mechanisms.

More innovative measures can be anticipated, including accessing market resources more easily, lowering companies' operating costs and improving the efficiency of government services, he said.

A guideline made up of more than 200 already introduced policies was released at the conference. These will enable foreign companies to make investment decisions more easily, especially in popular sectors such as biomedicine, artificial intelligence, automobiles, high-end equipment, new materials and healthcare.

Among the 3.5 million market entities registered in Shanghai, about 80,000 are foreign-invested, overtaking all other Chinese cities in terms of such foreign investment density. In the past five years, Shanghai has attracted $100 billion in foreign direct investment. High-tech investment accounted for 33 percent of all foreign investment in the city during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, up from 23 percent during the previous five years.

Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Company, said during the conference that the company will continue to expand its investment scale and scope in Shanghai. The company plans to build more than 100 new vessels over the next five years, with a total investment of $27 billion.

With Shanghai serving as MSC's Asia-Pacific operation base, the company's first three new cargo planes are scheduled to take off from Shanghai to launch international air cargo services. The company's high-end luxury cruise brand will set Shanghai as its home port to inaugurate the Asian cruise season in 2028.

In addition, MSC will collaborate with Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd to jointly build an LNG clean energy refueling network, effectively reducing ship carbon emissions and supporting Shanghai Port's green transition, he said.

Over time, a total of 1,060 multinational companies have chosen Shanghai to locate their regional headquarters. The city is also home to 631 foreign-invested research and development centers.

Multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is one of them, setting up its global research and development China center in Shanghai in 2021. The center has been upgraded as the company's global strategic R&D center.

Iskra Reic, executive vice-president of AstraZeneca International, said that Shanghai boasts a "marvelous" business environment, offering great opportunities through platforms like the CIIE for foreign companies to expand in the region and beyond.