Minhang holds roadshows to attract e-commerce platforms

Shanghai's Minhang District is actively working to attract investments from across the country.

It organized an event on the benefits of its bonded areas in Shenzhen on Tuesday, attracting more than 70 enterprises from the cross-border e-commerce industry chain.

It is one of the district's most recent efforts to attract e-commerce platforms to achieve new breakthroughs in import trade and develop new business models in foreign trade.

Li Rui, deputy director of the Minhang government, said the district has greatly benefited from national and city-level development strategies such as the Yangtze River Delta integrated development, the Hongqiao International Open Hub, Shanghai's Southern Science Innovation Center, and the Lingang New Area of the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone.

"With favorable policies, Minhang has become an ideal place for investment as one of the innovation engines, open hubs, industrial and talent highlands, as well as a liveable area," he said.

Minhang is actively pursuing the China International Import Expo's spillover effect, he added.

"We are accelerating services to foster new business forms, such as digital trade, cross-border e-commerce, and bonded exhibition, by leveraging our two bonded areas in the Hongqiao Central Business District," said Li.

Yu Limin, deputy director of Shanghai's Longwu Customs, said the favorable bonded services in Minhang have greatly reduced time for enterprises' capital circulation and tax refund, saved logistic costs, and provided unimpeded sales return channels for cross-border e-commerce.

AI solution provider Sciencetree, high-tech enterprise IP3 Technology and cross-border e-commerce service provider Pachammer, all headquartered in Shenzhen, signed investment agreements with Minhang.

Pachammer's CEO, Liang Jiawei, said that the company will assist Minhang's Caohejing Bonded Area in shifting its industry focus to cross-border e-commerce.

It hopes to attract 300 cross-border digital trade enterprises to Minhang with a planned investment of 300 million yuan (US$43.95 million), creating 5,000 to 8,000 jobs.

It also intends to drive 15-20 billion yuan of cross-border digital trade output value from upstream to downstream, with an annual tax payment of approximately 200 million yuan.

The Caohejing bonded area is the closest customs special zone to the city center, with bonded processing, bonded exhibition and import digital commerce service functions. It intends to invest 100 million yuan per year for three years to establish service platforms for the cross-border e-commerce industry and develop an ecosystem for the industry.

Minhang currently has 3,200 high-tech enterprises and 121 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and foreign R&D centers. The number of listed companies reached 48, ranking second in the city.

The district's total output value in 2022 was 288 billion yuan, with fiscal revenue of 30.7 billion yuan and a total industrial output value of around 367 billion yuan. It also boasted US$4.56 billion in contracted foreign investment.

Its R&D spending accounted for roughly 10 percent of regional GDP, nearly four times China's current average.

The district has agreed to collaborate with Lingang Group on the development of a national industrial park, Lingang Pujiang International Science and Technology City.

The industrial park, with a planned area of 10.7 square kilometers, will combine functions such as an economic and technology development zone, a high-tech industrial development zone and a comprehensive bonded zone.

This year, the district has organized more than 30 investment promotion events in cities such as Guangzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen.

More activities will be planned in the future to reach out to more potential investors, according to district officials.