Since the launch of reform and opening-up 40 years ago, Shanghai has developed into a desirable destination for foreign investment and a key link and growth engine for multinational corporations' global operations. Benefiting from a continuously optimized business environment, foreign-invested enterprises based in Shanghai have experienced rapid growth, with more than half preferring the city as their gateway to China and their most important overseas market.

A wide range of overseas investors

By the end of 2017, Shanghai had introduced about 91,000 foreign-invested projects, with paid-in capital of $223.1 billion, accounting for 11 percent of the country's total. In the first half of 2018, Shanghai saw 2,177 new foreign-invested projects and contractual foreign investment of $21.5 billion, among which $8.56 billion had been executed.

Countries and regions listed as the top 10 investors in Shanghai (by paid-in capital) in the first half of 2018 were Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, the United States, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, whose paid-in capital amounted to about $7.89 billion, accounting for 92.1 percent of the city's total. The paid-in capital from countries along the Belt and Road Initiative totaled around $500 million, making up 5.8 percent of Shanghai's total.

Major industries favored by foreign capital

As the main area attracting foreign capital, the service sector absorbed 95 percent of the city's total paid-in capital in 2017, among which the headquarters economy attracted the most investment, while manufacturing has become increasingly attractive to overseas investors in recent years, with foreign-invested enterprises playing a leading role in high-tech manufacturing.

Substantial benefits for foreign-invested companies

Business in China has become an integral part of the global operations of foreign companies. According to a survey by a third-party institution, many foreign-invested companies across a range of industries indicated that they would continue their investment in China to achieve better performance in the Chinese market.