Shanghai continues to develop as a global business center 
2019-11-06
SHANGHAI, as a pioneer of China’s development, is forging ahead to become a global center of finance, trade and innovation. The city can be found coming out on top in several global lists which rank cities on various aspects such as business environment, international influence, financial services and sci-tech innovation.
On the 2019 Doing Business report published by the World Bank, for instance, Shanghai saw its global rankings edging higher for most indicators in the bank’s global assessment, making large contributions to the leap in China’s overall business environment ranking.
The list “indicates that the business environment reform in Shanghai has made great progress in both depth and effectiveness,” said Chen Yin, executive vice mayor of Shanghai.
During the second China International Import Expo, the 2019 Shanghai City Promotion Convention, under the theme of “Embracing the CIIE, Sharing A Future,” will be held to introduce the city’s business environment and investment policies to overseas investors, aiming to lure more foreign capital and attract enterprises to the city.
Nearly a thousand people are estimated to attend the meeting today, including key CIIE exhibitors, transnational corporations, state-owned enterprises located in Shanghai, private companies, platforms and agencies, representatives for domestic and foreign authorities, and the press.
Authorities will especially give detailed information on four important areas — the Pudong New Area, the Lingang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Hongqiao Commercial Zone and Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone.
As an example reflecting improvements in the city’s business environment, the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory started trial production barely 10 months after it broke ground. The company also said the facility was about 65 percent cheaper to build than its Model 3 production plant in the United States.
The Gigafactory is now waiting for relevant approval, after which weekly production is expected to reach 1,000 vehicles in the first phase, according to Tao Lin, Tesla’s global vice president.
“Thanks to the good business environment in Shanghai, Tesla has been free to innovate, validating Shanghai as the correct choice for building our first overseas factory,” Tao said.
Also, Shanghai was ranked as one of the top five global financial centers in the world for the third time in a row, according to the latest edition of the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI 26), which was co-published in September by the China Development Institute in Shenzhen and Z/Yen Partners, a London-based market research company.
“At the forefront of the reform and opening-up, Shanghai has always attached great importance to, and unswervingly expanded the use of, foreign capital,” said Yang Chao, deputy director of the city’s commerce commission. Since the beginning of this year, Shanghai has issued 30 measures on the headquarters of multinational companies, 40 measures on the opening-up of the service sector, and 26 measures on the promotion of foreign investment.
In the first three quarters, the city saw 5,192 new foreign capital projects, a sharp increase of 40.2 percent from a year earlier. The contract value of foreign investment, meanwhile, added up to US$36.6 billion and paid-in value reached US$14.6 billion, up by 8.9 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
By the end of September, the city had 705 regional headquarters of multinational companies, including 109 Asia-Pacific headquarters and 452 research and development centers.
For instance, Sulzer, a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm, built a local manufacturing facility in June 2008. “
The Asia-Pacific region is our most promising market,” said Li Xinyu, finance controller of Sulzer Chemtech APAC, revealing that they are considering setting up the APAC headquarters of their Chemtech division in Shanghai.
Another highlight is the China International Import Expo, which is already seen by importers as an ideal venue to debut their latest products and technology.
Not merely symbolic of the city’s allround development, the success of last year’s expo has sent a clear signal to the world about Shanghai’s ability and intention to become an aspirational destination for overseas enterprises and capital, across all industries.
Boehringer Ingelheim, a German pharmaceutical company, will unveil a total stroke solution covering not only prevention but also treatment and rehabilitation during the second CIIE.
The company, which has its China management headquarters in Shanghai, has invested about 170 million euros (US$189.7 million) in the city, and plans to increase investment of 174 million euros in China from 2019 to 2023.
“We have our strongest footprint here in Shanghai with not only regional headquarters but also pharma plants and a rehabilitation center and we intend to increase investment here in this key hub,” said Felix Gutsche, president and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim in China.
Looking forward, China’s new foreign investment law will go into effect on January 1.
The law was formulated in a bid to “further expand opening-up, vigorously promote foreign investment, protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, standardize the management of foreign investment, impel the formation of a new pattern of allround opening-up and boost the sound development of the socialist market economy.”
This has enhanced the confidence of foreign investors for Chinese markets, Yang said. “Multinational corporations with long roots in Shanghai, such as Lawson, Unilever and Merck, said the law has given foreign companies a reassuring sense of their long-term presence and investment in China.”
And as a pioneer of China’s reform and opening-up, no doubt the city will seize the implementation of the foreign investment law as an opportunity, pushing forward all-round and high-level opening to the world in broader fields and with greater efforts, thus building a world-class business environment, Yang said.
