A view of Shanghai Photo: VCG

Shanghai has maintained positive growth in foreign investment during the first half of this year, despite the epidemic, a Shanghai official said on Monday, showing the city remains an attractive destination for foreign investment on the back of China's opening-up policy.

Shanghai's actual use of foreign capital still maintained  positive growth in the first half of this year, exceeding $12 billion, and the city has added 26 regional headquarters of multinational companies and 10 foreign-funded R&D centers, Wu Qing, vice mayor of Shanghai said on Monday.

Up to now, more than 60,000 foreign-funded enterprises have invested in Shanghai, and there are 857 and 516 regional headquarters and foreign-funded R&D centers of multinational companies located in the city, Wu noted. 

Shanghai has become one of the most attractive cities in the world for foreign investment, and one of the preferred locations for multinational companies deploying their industrial chains, supply chains and innovation chains, Wu said. 

Shanghai will accelerate the implementation of a new version of the 'negative list' for foreign investment access and further relax market access…and let foreign-funded enterprises feel confident to invest in Shanghai, Wu said.

Shanghai has made great effort to improve the city's competitiveness over the past 10 years, and has focused on becoming a metropolis for international finance, trade and shipping. 

The total transaction volume in the financial market has increased from 528 trillion yuan to 2,511 trillion yuan, and Shanghai port's container throughput has ranked first in the world for 12 consecutive years, according to official data.

The city said its proportion of R&D expenditure equivalent to GDP has increased from 3.19 percent 10 years ago to over 4.1 percent now.

Global Times