Xi'an seeks cooperation with foreign enterprises in Yangtze River Delta

A cooperation and exchange meeting was held in Shanghai on Nov 6 between Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi province in Northwest China, and foreign-funded enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region.

As a promotion for the further introduction of foreign investment to the western city - with the theme of "Meet at the import expo, and advance to the west of China hand in hand" - the meeting attracted the leaders of SCO and more than 120 foreign-funded enterprises, including representatives of foreign-funded enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta such as SAP, Shell and KPMG, representatives of enterprises participating in the import expo, and representatives of relevant alumni enterprises in Xi'an.

Li Mingyuan, deputy secretary of the Xi'an municipal Party committee and city mayor, attended and delivered a speech. The officials of relevant provincial and municipal departments and the management committees of development zones also attended the meeting.

In his speech, Mayor Li said that since around 2,100 years ago, when Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty went to the western regions, different nationalities, beliefs and cultures have interweaved here and coexisted harmoniously. Chang'an (the predecessor of Xi'an) became the intersection of eastern and western civilizations, and a gene of openness was thus integrated into the blood of the city.

In the new era, Xi'an is speeding up its development into a national central city and an international metropolis, and contacts with other countries are becoming increasingly frequent and close, Li said.

According to the mayor, Xi’an was elected as the co-chair city of the world urban land organization in 2019, and has established friendly city relations with 36 cities in 30 countries. Its international influence and reputation are increasing.

Xi'an attaches great importance to the development of foreign-funded enterprises in Xi'an, and is strengthening its service level to foreign-funded enterprises.

During the epidemic period, Xi'an city presented urgently-needed epidemic prevention materials to foreign-funded enterprises and their parent companies, and actively coordinated and arranged for foreign investors to return to work and resume production, Li said.

Statistics show that the scale of foreign investment in the city has been expanding, and a large number of world top 100 foreign-funded enterprises, such as Samsung, Meguiar, Siemens, Bosch Rexroth, Schneider and Metro, have successively settled down here. A total of 4,212 foreign-invested enterprises have been established, with 237 new foreign-invested enterprises set up in 2019 alone; a year-on-year increase of 14.13%. The actual utilization of foreign investment is US $7.057 billion. From January to September, the actual utilization of foreign capital was US $6.584 billion, up 7.16% year-on-year.

Li told representatives of foreign enterprises attending the meeting that today's Xi'an has become the city with the most development potential and market business opportunities in China - and even the world.

At the meeting, relevant departments of Xi'an city outlined 15 projects to the foreign-funded companies, including in sectors like electronic information, automobiles, high-end equipment manufacturing, biomedicine, new energy, aviation, modern logistics, intelligent manufacturing and the new materials industry.

Foreign enterprises and businessmen attending the meeting said that Xi'an is an important region with overlapping development opportunities and is a 'land of treasure' in investment terms. After the meeting, they will visit Xi'an to seek cooperation opportunities.