Jing’an is an important gateway for overseas enterprises to enter China and domestic enterprises to go global. It is also a key hub for Shanghai to blend into the global service network. An open economy is a prominent feature of economic development in Jing’an District. In 2021, Jing’an District achieved a total tax revenue of RMB 84.179 billion, including tax revenue from foreign-funded enterprises of RMB 46.310 billion, accounting for 55% of the total tax revenue of Jing’an District. In terms of tax revenue, Jing’an District has ranked first among the central urban areas of Shanghai for five consecutive years.
In 2022, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the more complex international environment, Jing’an District has always adhered to the original aspiration of leading an open economy. From January to July, the tax revenue from foreign-funded enterprises of Jing’an District was RMB 30.38 billion, accounting for 58% of the total tax revenue of Jing’an District, which makes it remain in first place among the central urban areas. From January to July, 116 foreign-funded projects were set up in Jing’an District, with contractual foreign investment reaching USD 1.264 billion, a year-on-year growth of 54.04%, and actual foreign investment reaching USD 695 million, a year-on-year growth of 48.19%.
The increase in foreign investment in hard times shows the stable expectations of foreign investors for China’s economic development and is also a vivid depiction of the resilience, vitality, and potential of Jing’an’s open economy.
I. Launch the Foreign Investment Promotion Partnership Program to Create a “Magnetic Field” for Global Resources
The Foreign Investment Development Center of Jing’an District is not only the “first stop” for foreign-funded enterprises to invest in Jing’an District, but also the “birth family” of foreign-funded enterprises in Jing’an District. In recent years, Jing’an District has been improving the functions of service platforms for foreign investment promotion in order to facilitate sharing of resources, joint consultation of information and joint promotion of progress for foreign-funded projects in all fields, thus forming a joint force for foreign investment promotion.
This year, the Foreign Investment Promotion Center of Jing’an District launched the Foreign Investment Promotion Partnership Program, aiming to further strengthen cooperation and interaction with Chambers of Commerce and major economic investment promotion organizations in countries and regions, and attract more multinational corporations, international financial institutions, international organizations and professional services, so that Jing’an District can have a more attracting investment business card for the world, and make a more loud “Jing’an Voice” to the world.
It is understood that Chambers of Commerce and institutions of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Australia in Shanghai became the first batch of partners of Jing’an District and were awarded the Certificate of Jing’an District Foreign Investment Promotion Partnership Agency. The first batch of partners not only covers the main countries and regions where enterprises invested in Jing’an District come, but also has a global influence on foreign investment. As a key hub in the regional economic structure, they will continuously promote the gathering and connection of talents, capital and information in Jing’an District, and transmit Jing’an’s international development concept and industrial policies to enterprises in the host country in a more timely and detailed manner, thus contributing wisdom to Jing’an District to gather global functional institutions, high-end projects, outstanding talents and entrepreneurial teams.
II. Focus on Concentration and Radiation, Attract Headquarters of Foreign-Funded Enterprises While Positioning Regional Industries
Investment promotion is the top priority of an open economy and the “source of flowing water” to ensure high-quality economic development. In recent years, Jing’an District has been focusing on strategic and targeted investment promotion and making great efforts in the concentration and radiation of foreign investment promotion. Taking the industrial leading enterprises as a breakthrough, Jing’an District will make efforts to attract regional headquarters of multinational companies, professional institutions of global service providers, high-end luxury groups, high-quality consumer brands, etc. Only with a high enough competence level and sufficiently powerful radiation effect, can Jing’an District occupies a more important position in the industrial chain to serve, influence and even drive the development of the whole district.
“Planting parasol trees will attract phoenixes”. Jing’an District has formulated a series of policies to meet the needs of enterprises, and such policies have played their role so far. The Global Service Provider Program, Headquarters Economy Enhancement Program, and the Asia-Pacific Operation Headquarters Support Program have been successively implemented. These programs provide exclusive support for enterprises in their life cycles following the strategy of “one policy for one enterprise”, and have incubated a number of high-quality enterprises that can gather and allocate resources in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world in terms of trade, investment, supply chain, and R&D. From January to July 2022, eight regional headquarters of multinational companies settled down in Jing’an District. As of July, the number of regional headquarters of multinational companies reached 108 in Jing’an District, including 34 high-level headquarters for Greater China and wider regions, covering business fields such as high-end consumption, professional services, data intelligence, and life health. The growth rate and overall scale of headquarters enterprises rank top in Shanghai.
As a new member of the Asia-Pacific Operation Headquarters Support Program, PRETTL, a Germany-integrated industrial group, said that it is Jing’an District’s superior geographical location, favorable business environment, and outstanding enterprise services that made it decide to settle down. In addition, the representative of PRETTL mentioned that it will set up PRETTL Enterprise Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which is the Asia-Pacific headquarters of PRETTL’s largest automotive division SWH. This also marks a new stage for PRETTL SWH’s investment in China. In addition to business in China, such headquarters enterprises will also have the right to govern the businesses in South Korea, Vietnam, India, and Japan.
The gathering place of foreign-funded headquarters enterprises must also be a place with a highly developed professional service industry, as judged from the development course of global cities. Jing’an District not only brings together high-level global service providers such as professional consulting agencies including Roland Berger, KPMG, and CBRE, but also takes a leading position in various segments of the professional service industry. For example, testing and certification authorities such as TÜV Rheinland from Germany and UL from the US, and shipping agencies such as Kuehne & Nagel from Switzerland and GEODIS from France have been attracted to settle their headquarters in Jing’an District. A good ecology for the professional service industry will further drive the development of the headquarters’ economy to a higher level. This is a virtuous circle with mutual promotion and continuous improvement.
The trade service industry, as the “trumpet industry” of Jing’an District, has shown excellent risk resistance capacity during the pandemic. The business performance of LVMH Group, Kering Group, and Richemont Group, the world’s top three luxury brands, and L’Oréal, a famous group engaging in cosmetics, rose against the trend, fully demonstrating the strong potential of China’s consumer market. Recently, Maison Margiela, MARNI, JIL SANDER and AMIRI, the four pioneering fashion design brands of OTB, a luxury group from Italy, settled in JC Plaza. After opening its first store in the Chinese mainland in Jing’an International Center, BLUE BOTTLE, a specialty coffee brand, opened its second store in Jing’an Kerry Central, becoming a new fashion landmark for citizens to visit. In addition, the first fashion retail stores in the fields of international jewelry and clothing are more eye-catching. For instance, DE BEERS, the world’s diamond authority, opened its first high-end jewelry salon in Shanghai at Plaza 66; BOGNER, a luxury sports brand from Germany, opened its first store in Shanghai at Plaza 66; Shanghai Tang, a high-end China style luxury brand, opened its first new concept store in China at HKRI Taikoo Hui. In the first half of 2022, Jing’an District introduced 42 first stores of various brands (4 of them are the first stores in China) despite the pandemic.
In 2022, Jing’an District will continue to attract foreign-funded headquarters in a wider range and at deeper levels in more fields for “six major industries”, including commerce and trade services, financial services, professional services, data intelligence, cultural creativity, and life health. In this way, industrial platforms can better play their roles as carriers and supporters, and all enterprises investing in Jing’an District can achieve long-term development and win-win results.
III. The Signing of Another Cooperation Agreement Facilitates Jing’an District to Accelerate Optimization of Business Environment
Jing’an District has been focusing on the construction of the business environment and considering better services and convenience for enterprises as the top priority.
This year, the People’s Government of Jing’an District signed a cooperation agreement with the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai (Chamber of International Commerce Shanghai), as a means to more effectively implement the strategy of “bringing in” and “going global” and solve the pain points, difficulties and bottlenecks for the operation and development of foreign-funded enterprises. The focus of this cooperation will be the goal of developing the Shanghai International Trade Center. The CPIT will give full play to its institutional advantages in promoting exchanges in China-foreign economic and trade investment, international commercial arbitration laws and other fields. This will further motivate the vitality of the regional economy in Jing’an, accelerate the development of key industries, cultivate characteristic economic and trade activities, and create a good investment environment, thus improving its overall competitiveness. The two sides will jointly provide professional services for Chinese and foreign enterprises in Jing’an District, especially foreign-funded headquarters and leading enterprises, in an effort to promote enterprises to tap domestic and foreign markets and boost the building of the business environment.
This is not its maiden attempt to positively seek connections from outside and expand win-win cooperation. At the Headquarters Economy Conference held in March last year, Jing’an District signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Shanghai Customs District. Jing’an Customs Supervision Office was officially established on Hanzhong Road, providing customs services for enterprises in Jing’an District. So far, the risk assessment system for imported clothing jointly promoted by Jing’an District and Shanghai Customs District has been implemented. The publicity and implementation campaign for this policy was first launched in Jing’an District and has been successively reported on www.gov.cn, xinhuanet.com and other media. In 2021, a total of 38 enterprises in Jing’an District carried out a safety risk assessment on 381 batches of imported clothing (involving 167,000 pieces in 973 styles) under the guidance of Customs. As a result, the duration of laboratory testing was reduced by an average of 3-5 working days, and the customs clearance time was shortened by nearly 50%. Relying on the station customs, Jing’an District recommended import and export enterprises in its jurisdiction to obtain the AEO certification, and helped headquarters enterprises such as Inditex, Yamaha and L’Oréal pass the assessment and become higher-level AEO certified enterprises.
In recent years, Jing’an District has been accelerating the construction of its core functional areas, and a new, organic urban pattern is taking shape. West Nanjing Road continues to develop. A number of major projects, Zhangyuan Garden, for example, with high-end business, high-end consumption and high-end services are advanced in an orderly manner. These projects will promote multinational companies to set up their Asia-Pacific headquarters and global headquarters in Jing’an, and help Jing’an District develop a world-class landmark business district and CBD. This year, a number of Class A+ office buildings will go into service in the Suzhou Creek Riverside Business Cluster Area, and nearly 600,000 square meters of high-standard carriers will also be put into operation in the two-wing regions of Middle Ring Road. These high-quality new buildings will be a good supplement to West Nanjing Road. By virtue of the spillover effect of West Nanjing Road, they will offer larger development room for the functional expansion and level improvement of foreign-funded enterprises, thus forming a powerful momentum for the economic development of Jing’an District.
From optimizing the environment to streamlining administration and delegating powers, from policy support to talent services, Jing’an District will never cease to optimize its business environment.
Creating an international Jing’an that is suitable to live and work in can both facilitate and benefit from the attraction of foreign capital. The settlement of foreign-funded enterprises has also greatly promoted diversified education, medical services, and the building of commercial and cultural landmarks in the region, forming a pattern where high-standard communities, night economy and “innovative integration of business, tourism, culture and sports industries” develop jointly. While accelerating the construction of key areas and major projects, Jing’an District will focus more closely on the “people” in the future, and comprehensively consider the functions of office, consumption and residence to achieve a balance between business and commerce, between business and culture, and between business and living facilities.