Shanghai to Improve Services for Foreign Investors

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SHANGHAI, Jan. 13 – The Shanghai government is upgrading its range of services for overseas investors to maintain the inflow of funds, says a local official.

“If we want to seize opportunities from the challenges, it is necessary for us to give equal emphasis to improving services and opening up,” Sha Hailin, chief of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and deputy secretary-general of the municipal government told Xinhua.

Sha added that logistics, commerce and trade, information services, research and development and other high value-added services would now be open to overseas investors. More so, for investments made in ocean-based industries like shipbuilding.

Local authorities will concentrate on the development of regional headquarters and the expansion of service trade.

The local government has also opened an online network for overseas investment found here. The website, written in Chinese, allows investors to follow-up their applications for new ventures or changes to existing businesses.

In 2008, Shanghai recorded US$17 billion worth of contracted overseas investment; achieving a record US$10 billion worth of paid-in overseas investment worth 10 percent of the national total.