The Lujiazui area of Pudong, Shanghai develops itself into a hub for global headquarters. [Photo by Xu Wanglin/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Lujiazui area of Pudong, Shanghai is developing itself into a hub for global headquarters and expects to be home to 200 regional headquarters of multinational companies by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

Hempel, a Danish industrial and ship protection paint product and services supplier, upgraded its management headquarters in Lujiazui into a new North Asian headquarters on Dec 8 in a bid to further optimize the allocation of global resources, including supply chains, customer services, markets, and research and development.

Hema Fresh, a grocery chain backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced that it will move its global headquarters to Lujiazui at the end of this month and work to set up a high-level service complex for new retail talent, as well as deepen cooperation with its trading partners around the world in an effort to strengthen its ability to mobilize global resources.

Additionally, many regional headquarters of world-leading multinational companies have been set up in Lujiazui. Statistics show that the area now houses 120 regional headquarters of multinational companies, making the area the most concentrated headquarters economy hub in Shanghai.

Hema chose Lujiazui as its global headquarters due to its strong business environment and because the area is leading the development of new retail, according to Yuan Ruofan, head of the industrial development center of Hema Fresh.

"Hema's new headquarters and industrial base in Pudong will inject the company with new growth momentum and drive the high-quality development of Pudong," Yuan added.

A complete industrial ecosystem for the headquarters economy has taken shape in Lujiazui, and more than 340 Fortune Global 500 companies have set up institutions and organizations in the area.

Wu Jianfeng, an official of the Lujiazui Administrative Committee, said that Lujiazui will ramp up efforts to help enterprises build multipurpose headquarters. Efforts will also be made to encourage Chinese regional headquarters to upgrade into Asia-Pacific and global headquarters.

"By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Lujiazui is expected to be home to 200 regional headquarters of multinational companies, accounting for 20 percent of Shanghai's total," according to Wu.