Admitting economic turbulence ahead, Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng exuded confidence after the city beat its growth target for the year, amid stepped-up efforts to draw foreign investment.
“Global investors are constantly increasing investment, delivering votes of confidence to Shanghai,” he said at a media briefing on Sunday, after the close of the annual International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council meeting. “Shanghai remains one of the top choices for foreign investors to do investment and build their supply chains.”
Gong did not elaborate on the names of the new investors.
Shanghai vows 2-hour project approvals to woo foreign investments
Shanghai vows 2-hour project approvals to woo foreign investments
The mayor added that the mainland’s commercial and financial hub, often dubbed the “head of the dragon” in the Chinese economy, is well on its way to achieving its target of 5.5 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth set at the beginning of the year.
“We are chasing a better result through our efforts,” he said.
The advisory meeting, held in person for the first time since 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, was attended by 30 global business leaders, including Roche chairman Severin Schwan and Kuehne+Nagel CEO Stefan Paul.
Shanghai has been determined to attract global investors since China ended its strict Covid-19 controls and reopened its borders to visitors earlier this year.
Tesla, whose Shanghai Gigafactory is already its largest global production hub, announced in April that it would build a new battery factory in Shanghai to manufacture its large-scale energy-storage units, dubbed Megapacks.
These units are intended to help stabilise energy grids. Each Megapack can store enough energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour, according to Tesla.
Boston Scientific, which makes medical devices for things such as disease diagnosis, announced last week that it would open the company’s first factory in China at Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone.
Neither Tesla nor Boston Scientific revealed the size of their investments in Shanghai.
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“As a gateway city, Shanghai’s local economy is highly dependent on foreign funds, foreign technologies, foreign businesses and foreign professionals,” said Wang Feng, chairman of Shanghai-based financial services group Ye Lang Capital. “The new FDI [foreign direct investment] projects Shanghai has drawn do not seem to have satisfied the city leaders. They must be trying to lure more big-name multinational firms to invest here.”
