Foreigners give their suggestions for a better Shanghai
Foreigners gathered on Tuesday to offer their suggestions to make Shanghai a better city and more foreigner-friendly.
Their ideas were collected by the Shanghai Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at an annual meeting with foreign consular officials, scholars and representatives of sister cities, foreign-invested enterprises and commerce chambers in the city.
They praised Shanghai for its continuous efforts in comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, promoting innovation and making it more convenient for foreigners to come to China.
Most foreigners called for a more simplified visa application procedure to help foreign talent come to the city more conveniently and quickly.
Some also urged the government to work out more detailed policies to back its appeal for foreign-invested research and development centers to make more of a contribution to the city’s ambition to build itself into a global innovation center for science and technology.
Axel Cruau, the French Consul-General, said he wanted Shanghai to provide more internship opportunities for French students so as to attract young creative talent to the city after they had graduated.
Kenneth Jarrett, president of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said his organization wished the government would expand a scheme in the free trade zone for fast-tracked importation of special bio-medical products to the whole city.
Wolfgang Rohr, senior research fellow of German Studies Center of Tongji University, suggested Shanghai should extend all Metro operation time to midnight in line with other international metropolitan cities.
Lakshitha Ratnayake, Consul-General of Sri Lanka, said more investment was wanted in Sri Lanka from Shanghai companies.