60 new foreign investment deals signed in city

Shanghai remains the top destination for multinationals to invest in China as a new batch of 60 foreign investment projects signed in the city on Wednesday.

They were the second group of foreign investment projects inked in 2021, and the overseas capital attracted reached US$5.85 billion.

Among them, 36 projects feature Shanghai's key industries, covering integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, electronics and information, life and health, automobiles, high-end equipment, advanced materials and fashionable consumer goods.

Also, 35 projects are located in the five "new cities" of Shanghai: Jiading, Songjiang, Qingpu, Fengxian and Nanhui.

Twenty-four of the projects received funding of more than US$50 million each, and five were from Fortune Global 500 companies.

"China contributes more than 20 percent of our total sales and is the biggest market for us now and increases fast. We will upgrade our operation in Shanghai to our regional headquarters, which will further improve our efficiency in China," said Sun Yu, general manager of Swarovski (Shanghai) Trading Co Ltd,  an Austrian producer of crystal glass jewellery.

"Besides, we set our biggest global flagship store here in Shanghai's Hong Kong Square on Huaihai Road M. It will open this November. Consumers can have tailor-made products here," Sun added.

In the first half of 2021, Shanghai attracted US$12.45 billion in foreign capital, an increase of 21.1 percent over 2020 and up 13 percent on average in the past two years.

By the end of June, the city added 31 regional headquarters and 12 research and development centers of multinational companies, becoming home to 802 regional headquarters and 493 research and development centers of multinational companies.