Multinationals showcase growth during China's 40 years of reform
A new exhibition tells the stories of multinational companies growing with China’s 40 years of reform and opening-up, and highlighting Shanghai’s efforts to constantly improve its business environment, capacities and competitiveness.
The two-week “40 Years On: Multinational Companies in Shanghai” exhibition, which opened yesterday at the Hongqiao Paradise Walk, looks at 42 cases from 40 companies chosen from about 80.
One of the companies showcased is Vaillant Group, a leading world manufacturer of heating, hot water, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. In the 1980s, the Vaillant gas water heater with its “white rabbit” log crossed the European continent and arrived in Shanghai as one of the earliest foreign household appliance brands.
Now, China has become the production and marketing center for Vaillant in the Asia-Pacific region and the focus of its global production and research and development network.
Another firm is UFI Filters, a filtration systems supplier, which produces a quarter of the world’s OE diesel filters. It now has five factories in China and employs more than 2,200 people.
“The establishment of UFI’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai is not only a milestone in the company’s development in China, but also an important deployment of the group’s global strategy,” the company says. “I’m very impressed by this exhibition ... Just walking in for a few minutes, you can have the feeling of the development of multinational companies in China and the changes they’ve brought to the country,” said Luca Biagini, chief operating officer for the Asia-Pacific region at UFI. “And we are proud to be part of that.”
With 40 years of reform and opening-up, China’s economy has grown spectacularly to become the largest in the world after the United States.
The GDP is now 33.5 times bigger and doubles, on average, every eight years, professional services consultancy PwC said.
Over the past four decades, multinational companies have actively helped promote sustainable economic and social development in China.
They are important participants, witnesses, contributors and beneficiaries of the reform and opening-up.
In 2017, the volume of foreign direct investment in China surged to a record high, ranking second in the world, to a total US$131 billion.
Contribution of foreign investment
Wu Bin, vice district magistrate in Minhang District, highlighted multinational companies’ contributions to the economy and developments of the district.
“Minhang District currently has a total of more than 7,300 registered foreign-invested enterprises,” Wu said.
“Although that number of companies accounted for only about 6 percent of all companies in the district, they contributed nearly 50 percent of the tax, 80 percent of the import and export volume in foreign trade, 66 percent of the industrial output value and about half of the employment intake, according to statistics data in 2017.”
Shirley Xie, consulting services chief of PwC Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong operations, said multinational corporations have played an important role in promoting China’s economic transformation over the 40 years since reform and opening-up began.
“With China’s economy shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development, the pace of industrial transformation and upgrading is accelerating, and foreign investment is pouring from labor-intensive industries into high-end sectors such as high-tech services and high-end manufacturing,” Xie said.
This exhibition has been organized by Shanghai Daily, news website eastday.com and International Channel Shanghai, and guided by the Information Office of Shanghai and the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, and supported by the Shanghai Association of Foreign Investment and the Shanghai Daily MNC Communication Club.