Shanghai hosts 1,060 regional headquarters of multinationals

Shanghai, China's financial hub and a popular foreign investment destination, boasted 1,060 regional headquarters of multinational companies and 631 foreign-invested research and development (R&D) centers as of September this year, latest data from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce showed.

Zhu Min, the commission's director, told a conference on Wednesday that the functional capabilities of these regional headquarters -- spanning investment decision-making, R&D innovation, financial management, procurement and distribution, and supply chain management -- have been continuously enhanced.

They form a sophisticated network of global resource allocation and play a vital role in strengthening Shanghai's urban competencies and international influence, Zhu said.

More than half of the foreign-invested R&D centers in Shanghai are concentrated in key industrial chains such as biomedicine, information technology, and automotive components, facilitating the aggregation of global sci-tech resources and fostering scientific, technological, and industrial development, he added.

In the first nine months of this year, Shanghai saw 4,764 newly established foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent. To date, the metropolis has attracted over 370 billion U.S. dollars in cumulative foreign investment and hosts nearly 80,000 foreign-invested firms.

Foreign firms contribute about one-fourth of Shanghai's GDP and one-third of its tax revenue, according to the commission.

Zhu said that Shanghai would further advance high-level opening-up and continue to foster a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.