Shanghai Jing'an a global service provider

Jing'an may be one of the smallest districts in Shanghai but it is home to 80 regional headquarters, accounting for nearly 12 percent of the city's total. Also, its Nanjing Road and Jing'an Temple commercial hubs are among the most iconic in Shanghai.

What makes Jing'an so popular with companies? The answer in short is: good service.

Yesterday, Jing'an announced ambitious plans to become a global service provider, a further step in attracting multinational companies to set up their regional headquarters in the district while helping domestic brands to expand overseas.

It aims to lure some of the world's renowned and highly competitive consulting firms, law offices and other industrial leaders in the service sector so that companies from home and abroad can enjoy one-stop world-class services.

Annually, Jing'an hopes to add at least 10 world-famous service organizations and more than five new regional headquarters of MNCs, under the plan revealed yesterday.

Zhou Haiying, deputy director of Jing'an, said: "What we always believe in is that the government serves companies and the companies serve the globe."

"Shanghai is a portal city where foreign companies enter China and domestic companies expand overseas. Jing'an, as one of the most international districts in China, should play a pioneering role and exploit its advantages to support Shanghai in turning from a port city into an outstanding global city," he added.

Jing'an also boasts 20 GaWC-listed service organizations.

GaWC, or the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, is a think tank that studies the relationships among world cities in the context of globalization. It has a list featuring some reputable service providers, and Jing'an is home to 20 of them, accounting for one-third of the city's total.

They include consultancy Bain, accounting firm KPMG, advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, law firm Jones Day and bank BNP.

Also, Jing'an has the country's first national-level human resources industrial park.

In burnishing its international appeal, the district also hopes to attract overseas talents and foreign companies to set up offices here, said Zhao Jianfeng, director of the Jing’an Development and Reform Commission.