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January 1, 2010

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Shanghai hot spot for foreign investment

FOREIGN direct investment in Shanghai reached a record level last year despite negative influences of the global financial crisis, the city's Commission of Commerce said yesterday.

Shanghai attracted a total of US$10.5 billion in investments from overseas, up 4.5 percent from a year earlier.

It was the second year in a row that the city achieved FDI above US$10 billion.

"The hard-earned growth resulted from various measures the city government adopted to make the market more accessible," said Li Maoyu, a Changjiang Securities Co analyst.

"But fundamentally speaking, it is based on the overall competitiveness of Shanghai."

The city is accelerating its pace on the path to becoming a global financial and shipping center by 2020.

In January last year, Shanghai launched wz.investment.gov.cn, to provide online services for foreign investors.

It helped to reduce the average time for the project application process to 5.1 days from eight days.

The commission also allowed district- and county-level governments to examine and approve foreign investment of up to US$100 million, up from US$30 million, to fast-track procedures for investors.

Sha Hailin, chairman of the commission, said in an earlier interview that the government would continue to streamline administrative procedures to make it simpler for foreign investments.

Sha also said FDI had played an important role for Shanghai in upgrading its economic structure, with the expansion of the services industry lying at the core.

The city's services sector absorbed US$7.6 billion of foreign investment last year, up 11.4 percent on an annual basis.

It accounted for 72.3 percent of total value of FDI in 2009, while the industrial and agricultural sectors took up 26.9 percent and 0.8 percent.

FDI in finance, retail, logistics and advanced manufacturing underwent rapid growth last year, the commission said.

Just to name two, the world's leading private equity firm, Blackstone Group, set up its first yuan-denominated PE fund in Shanghai in August, while United Kingdom-based BP plc pumped another US$71 million into its Shanghai subsidiary to develop clean energy.

Seventy-nine multinational companies chose to locate regional headquarters in Shanghai last year, boosting the total number to 755 and making the city the top destination on the Chinese mainland for regional headquarters of multinationals.

The commission said the taxation income from foreign-invested firms had grown more than 30 percent year on year in 2009 and it expected foreign investment to contribute even more to Shanghai's economy this year.




 

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