Top ranking foreign funded enterprises on the up
A list of the top foreign companies in Shanghai for 2017 with imports and exports exceeding US$10 million and total profits exceeding US$1.44 million has been released.
SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co ranked first in both revenue and tax payment among foreign enterprises in Shanghai, while Pegatron Technology was the biggest employer and also the top in total value of imports and exports, according to the city’s commission of commerce and Shanghai Association of Foreign Investment.
A total of 1,348 foreign enterprises in Shanghai have posted an import and export value over US$10 million and profits exceeding US$1.4 million for the year 2017.
The number was up by 11.4 percent, or 138 more than the previous year.
“Foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai are developing steadily in general, and have played a significant role in the city’s economic development in terms of import and export, total industrial output value, taxation and employment,” said Liu Jinping, who is the director of the city’s association of foreign investment.
The higher figures compared with last year also indicate the improved investment environment in Shanghai, Liu said.
By the end of October this year, Shanghai had attracted a total of 95,000 foreign-funded projects, amounting to US$237.6 billion in actual foreign investment.
In 2017, foreign-funded enterprises contributed more than a quarter of the city’s gross domestic product, over one-third of total tax revenue, about two-thirds of imports and exports in foreign trade and also of industrial output, and around 50 percent of the research and development investment of industrial enterprises.
Ma Chunlei, director of the city’s Development and Reform Commission, said Shanghai will accelerate the promotion of innovation in the free trade zone as well as expanding it, speed up setting up the technology innovation board on the Shanghai bourse, and make efforts to further develop the integration of Yangtze River Delta.