Shanghai restarts with focus on foreign investment

Production resumes at SAIC Motor's plant in Shanghai's Pudong New District on April 19. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/China Daily]

Shanghai will stabilize foreign investment and trade as part of its efforts to coordinate COVID-19 control with economic development.

The city will establish a mechanism to arrange designated personnel to aid work resumption at key foreign-funded enterprises and launch an online service system for major foreign-funded projects, according to an action plan released on Sunday.

It will also start the application process for special funds to develop the regional headquarters of multinational corporations in Shanghai ahead of schedule in 2022.

Gu Jun, director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission, said at a news conference on Sunday despite challenges, the fundamentals of Shanghai's long-term improvement in foreign trade and investment have not changed.

At present, 91 percent of 142 foreign-funded and foreign trade-related companies in the first group on the government's list to resume work and production have done so, along with 73 percent of the 562 companies in the second group and 50 percent of the 821 in the third.

Shen Kaiyan, head of the Institute of Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said to local news outlet ThePaper the recent COVID resurgence and external changes have had some impact on foreign investment in China.

Shen said confidence is important now, adding specific plans for key industries and enterprises must be made according to specific conditions.

L'Oreal Group founded its first investment company earlier this month in Shanghai, signaling its confidence in Shanghai's economic prospects, Gu said.