Shanghai seals 60 new foreign investment deals

A new batch of 60 foreign investment deals were signed on Friday in Shanghai, with a total contract value of over US$7.3 billion, according to the city's commission of commerce.

Among them, nine projects were invested by Global Fortune 500 companies, and 20 were for projects involving more than US$100 million each.

The projects cover various areas including integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, finance, culture, entertainment and health care. Of note, 39 projects were invested by companies in the manufacturing sector. 

In 2019, Shanghai launched 6,800 new foreign investment projects, up 21.5 percent year on year; the contracted foreign investment added up to US$50.25 billion, an increase of 7.1 percent; and the paid-in value of foreign investment rose 10.1 percent from a year earlier to total US$19.048 billion, according to data from the commission.

Meanwhile, 50 regional headquarters of transnational enterprises were established in Shanghai last year, bringing the number of regional headquarters in the city to 720. The city also welcomed 20 new research and development centers in 2019, bringing the local total to 461.

"Shanghai has always laid great emphasis on expanding opening-up and attracting foreign investment," said Yang Chao, deputy director of Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

"In 2019, we launched several supportive policies and measures to bring in more foreign investment, such as 40 measures promoting a new round of opening-up in the service sector, 30 measures to bolster the development of regional headquarters of transnational enterprises and 36 measures on boosting foreign investment in the city," Yang said.

Columbia China, a health care company jointly invested by Columbia Pacific Management from the United States and Sheares Healthcare Group from Singapore, for instance, will add an investment of around US$20 million to its regional headquarters located in Shanghai's Xuhui District, most of which will be used in developing its information system to support the company's management.

Japanese company Innobeauty will set up their managing headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region in Shanghai's Jing'an District. The company's Executive Director Liang Qin explained that their Delagediva brand gained a lot of attention during the second China International Import Expo in November last year, which was a major factor leading to their decision to open a regional headquarters in Shanghai.