The Bund scenic platform in Shanghai buzzes with Chinese and foreign tourists, all enjoying the city's stunning views on March 17, 2025. Photo: VCG

The 2025 Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference, themed "Share Shanghai Opportunities with Global Vision," kicked off on Tuesday, warmly inviting the global business community to invest in the city. 

As a vital economic hub in China, Shanghai serves as a key gateway for global investment. The conference reflects the nation's extensive endeavors to refine the business climate and enhance its increasing attractiveness to foreign capital.

This year marks the fifth consecutive year of the conference, which has drawn more than 500 global enterprises. Among them are well-known international enterprises like Bosch, BASF, Danaher, Bayer, Sanofi, SoftBank, Toshiba, Otis, Aptiv, Webasto and Dassault, underscoring Shanghai's appeal as a hub for innovation and industry leadership.

The event has seen the launch of 21 key projects in advanced materials, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, biomedicine and green sectors. It also unveiled the Shanghai 2025 key industry layout, detailing 10 prioritized industrial chains, and launched the second-phase funds for Shanghai's industrial transformation and upgrading with a total value of 50 billion ($6.89 billion) yuan. 

Chair, CEO and President of Otis Worldwide Corporation Judy Marks, who is one of the foreign business representatives taking part in the conference, told the Global Times that China is the largest single market for their industry's new elevator installations and for its service install base, presenting an attractive opportunity for sustained servicing of that equipment. 

She added that Otis is always ready to introduce its latest products and solutions to China, with its product and service offerings fully supporting and aligning with China's urban renewal policies and projects for infrastructure and landmarks, residential buildings and more.

German chemical giant BASF echoed this commitment to the Chinese market.

In its latest move, the BASF coatings division on Monday increased the production capacity at its Caojing plant in Shanghai to support market growth in the automotive industry in China and across the Asia-Pacific, according to a statement sent by the company to the Global Times.

"This expansion underscores our commitment to local production and our ability to respond swiftly to customer needs," said Patrick Zhao, senior vice president, Global Automotive OEM Coatings at BASF, according to the statement.

Shanghai remains to be a premier destination for international investment. In 2024 alone, 60 regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 30 foreign-funded research and development centers were newly certified. Additionally, nearly 6,000 new foreign-funded enterprises were set up in the city in 2024, attracting more than $17.6 billion in foreign capital.

The conference is a vivid manifestation of China's unwavering pursuit of expanded opening-up and serves as a robust platform, offering abundant opportunities for global enterprises, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's continuous efforts to enhance its business environment, ongoing industrial upgrading and further opening-up in key sectors like healthcare and telecommunications have significantly increased its appeal, Cong added.

Take Tesla's Shanghai energy storage Gigafactory as an example. Built in just seven months, it vividly demonstrates "Tesla speed" and serves as another prime showcase of the excellent business environment in the country.

China will work to further stabilize foreign investment in 2025, implementing measures to open up more fields and improve the business environment, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

To date, China has granted 13 foreign-invested companies access to value-added telecom services, more than 40 foreign-funded biotechnology projects have kicked off, and three new wholly foreign-owned hospitals have been approved for operation, He Yongqian, a spokesperson for the ministry, told a press conference.