Shanghai posts solid FDI growth in 2019

Shanghai reported solid growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year following a spate of measures to further open more sectors to foreign investors.

A total of 6,800 FDI projects were signed in the country's business and financial center last year, an annual increase of 21.5 percent, according to the Shanghai municipal statistics bureau. Contractual investment totaled 50.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 7.1 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, the actual use of foreign investment totaled 19 billion U.S. dollars, up 10.1 percent year on year, the bureau said.

In all, 5,538 projects were wholly foreign-owned, with a total contractual investment of 41.6 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for over 82 percent of the total, it said.

A total of 6,604 projects were in the services industry that saw contractual investment rise 21.7 percent to 47.9 billion U.S. dollars and actual investment jump 11.6 percent to 17.3 billion U.S. dollars.

By the end of 2019, Shanghai had a total of 720 regional headquarters of multinational corporations, with 50 being added last year, said Tang Huihao, deputy director of the bureau.