Shanghai is set to host its fifth annual Global Investment Promotion Conference on March 25, bring together hundreds of industrial leaders to further boost the city's economic vitality and global investment potential, according to the municipal government.
At a press conference held on Thursday, local officials released details of the event, saying the "investing in Shanghai" week will open together with the Global Investment Promotion Conference.
The investment conference this year will feature an opening ceremony, three corporate roundtable discussions, and numerous networking and relevant themed events. Over 500 representatives from prominent domestic and international companies, investment institutions, and business associations are expected to attend the conference. A key highlight will be the announcement of several major projects and achievements.
"[Shanghai] will leverage the demonstration effect of key industrial projects. Launch ceremonies for a series of new quality productive force projects related to intelligent terminals, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, and green and low-carbon industries will be held to further boost investment confidence of all parties," Zhang Ying, director of the office of the Shanghai investment promotion leading group, told the press conference.
Over the past year, the city secured 1,925 projects worth over 100 million yuan (about 13.8 million U.S. dollars) each, with a total investment exceeding 1.1 trillion yuan. Of the projects, 40 percent were in emerging and future industries, as well as other high-quality major projects. The scale of industrial investment reached a record high, surpassing 200 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1 percent year on year.
The investment conference will also see the launch of the second phase of Shanghai's industrial transformation and upgrading fund and the matrix of mergers and acquisitions fund for state-owned asset.
"The newly established matrix of mergers and acquisitions fund for state-owned asset has a total scale exceeding 50 billion yuan (about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars). It is mainly initiated by leading municipal state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, and platform companies, covering sectors such as reform of state-owned assets and enterprises, integrated circuits, biomedicine, high-end equipment, civil aviation, commercial aerospace, and cultural tourism and consumption," Chen Dong, deputy director of the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said at the press conference.
To address concerns from foreign businesses about scattered policies and complex regulations, officials from Shanghai also introduced during the press conference that Shanghai has formulated an investment promotion action plan to further open up and boost the confidence of foreign-invested enterprises with targeted policies, services, and investment opportunities to global enterprises.
"[Shanghai] will continue to leverage the overall plan for high-level institutional opening-up to deepen the comprehensive pilot program for expanding the opening-up of the service industry, implement the pilot projects in newly opened sectors such as biotechnology, wholly foreign-owned hospitals, and value-added telecommunications, and conduct pilot programs in areas including the pilot free trade zone and the Lingang Special Area, so as to continuously create new space and opportunities for foreign investment promotion in Shanghai," said He Dongbin, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.
Shanghai to host fifth annual Global Investment Promotion Conference next week
