China’s economic hub urged to show ‘dragon’s head’ in investor push as Shanghai seeks global partners
- Shanghai is inviting foreign businesses to invest in high-quality projects through an enhanced ‘global investment partner’ scheme
- But a European Union Chamber of Commerce in China survey showed firms with regional headquarters in Shanghai dropped from 40 per cent last year to 33 per cent
Shanghai could be positioned to exert its influence as the “dragon’s head” of China’s economy, amid the city’s new charm offensive to lure global investors, with both the economic hub and nation as a whole struggling to attract multinational companies.
Seen as being at the forefront of China’s bid to regain the confidence of foreign investors since its economic reopening, Shanghai is inviting overseas businesses to invest in high-quality projects through an enhanced “global investment partner” scheme, according to an official readout of a government meeting that took place on Monday.
“The idea of a global investment partner scheme was, in fact, brought up several years ago, but progress has been slow in the past couple of years because of the pandemic and heightened relations between China and the US,” said Shi Lei, a professor of economics from Fudan University.
Now via partnership with the Middle East, Central Asia, and Central and South America, we may gradually shake off the dependence on Europe and North America