Expanding multinational companies build more regional headquarters in Shanghai

Another batch of 20 regional headquarters and 10 research and development centers of multinational enterprises were awarded official certificates in Shanghai.

Of the enterprises awarded certificates this time, most are in the city's key industrial sectors, including six biomedical companies, five intelligent manufacturing firms, five in automobile and auto parts and seven in commerce, logistics and information service industries.

All of them are industry leaders, such as Merck from Germany, a leading global supplier in the life sciences industry. Germany's renowned balancing machine manufacturer Schenck was also on the list, with the world's leading open biomedical technology platform WuXi Biological from Hong Kong. Shipping and logistics company Yusen Logistics from Japan was also awarded.

Among these headquarters of multinational enterprises are seven recognized at the level of Greater China and above, which are, the Asia Pacific headquarters of Shenshi Biomedical under Hong Kong's CStone Pharm, Tyson Foods' Asia headquarters, and the Greater China headquarters of Siemens Healthineers and Novo Nordisk.

It was highlighted that in this batch, two are recognized as "business unit headquarters" – a new type of regional headquarters defined in the city's revision of regulations in November 2022 to be recognized with criteria on the scale and proportion of operating revenues.

Also on Thursday, 16 headquartered companies which have been rooted in the city for 20 years, were awarded commemorative plaques.

Over the past two decades, more and more multinational enterprises have chosen Shanghai as their destination to set up their regional headquarters, sharing the fruits of China's and Shanghai's economic opening and development while constantly holding firm confidence in their further and deeper development in the city.

Honeywell, as an example, has built its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Shanghai as early as 2003. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has continued to increase its investment and expand production in China and Shanghai.

"Over the past 20 years, China has become Honeywell's largest R&D center, production base and sales market in the world only after the United States," said Yu Feng, president of Honeywell China. "In the future, we will make new contributions to Shanghai's high-quality development, as well as gain new benefits."

Fujifilm have also gained tremendous growth in terms of company size, number of employees, business scope and tax payment after locating their regional headquarters in Shanghai in 2002.

Starting from the sales of imaging products at the beginning of its settlement in the city, it now has five branches and nearly 15 business units nationwide, with business covering health care, life sciences, imaging and optoelectronics.

"Twenty years on, looking back now on that decision, it was not only a right choice but also the optimal one," said Zhu Dekang, vice president of Fujifilm (China) Investment Co.

Zhu also revealed the company will launch an "accelerator program" in China to strengthen cooperation with domestic startups and promote the application of new technologies in the field of materials.

The city in 2022 posted the actual use of foreign capital exceeded US$23.9 billion, hitting a record high in scale, and became home to more regional headquarters of multinational enterprises.

A total of 60 regional headquarters and 25 R&D centers of foreign companies were added last year, making the cumulative numbers reach 891 and 531 respectively.