Shanghai reinforces commitment to openness
Shanghai has pledged to warmly welcome and provide support for more enterprises, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to develop in the Chinese market.
"Shanghai was born and prospered through its commitment to openness," Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining said in his speech at the "Invest in China Year" Summit and Shanghai City Promotion, a supportive activity held during the 6th China International Import Expo on Sunday.
With its unique position alongside the Yangtze River and the vast sea, the city has continuously expanded its advantages in openness. Its inclusive and open framework has deepened, and its global integration level has consistently risen, elevating the prowess of its open economy, according to Chen.
Today, Shanghai stands as China's largest economic center and a pivotal hub within the grand scope of economic globalization. It ranks sixth globally in terms of economic output, has maintained its position as the world's leading city in terms of foreign trade volume, and is home to over 70,000 foreign-funded enterprises.
"Through the window of Shanghai, everyone can witness China's resolute strides towards expanding openness. This view offers a glimpse of China's bright economic prospects in the long term and the significant opportunities brought about by China's unique form of modernization," Chen noted.
In fact, many overseas enterprises also see the city as a top choice to settle and develop business in the Chinese market, and have made plans for future investment in Shanghai.
3M, for example, is one of the first wholly-owned foreign enterprises in China and the first one in Shanghai. It has nine different manufacturing sites across the country, of which four are in Shanghai, and the company is "very encouraged about the future of the economy here."
"I think Shanghai is one of the key areas not only in China but in the world that is attracting multinational companies as well as a number of others," said Edward Kaleta, senior vice president of 3M.
"So that's the reason that we're here for the CIIE: to interact with Chinese government officials as well as other businesses to figure out where there's opportunities. But you can see just by walking around – this is where the action is. And we want to be part of that to try to identify future investment opportunities."
Meanwhile, Zafer Unluer, senior vice president of Organon and president of Organon China, mentioned that their global CEO Kevin Ali visited Shanghai in the first week of September and met Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng.
"In that meeting we talked about our interests to make Shanghai home not only to our China operations, but also to our global operations," Unluer said. "We are very much looking forward to increasing our commercial presence in China in three ways."
The "three ways", specifically, refer to increasing their manufacturing capabilities in China, partnering with local companies, and bringing global innovation to China and making it available for Chinese patients.
