Foreign investment has grown exponentially in the city of Shanghai, with 563 new foreign-funded projects having been established in January. This marked a 69.1% increase from the same period the year prior.

The growth was accredited to investment in manufacturing, commercial and technological services, regional headquarters and research and development centres.

Shine reports that total contractual foreign investment grew 197.6% to US$10.97 billion, while the actual use increased 33.5% to US$1.422 billion – due to the launch of several large projects involving foreign investment.

The service sector saw 552 new foreign-funded projects, with an actual use of US$1.284 billion in foreign investment, marking a 24.8% increase over the same period last year. Commercial service projects generated US$645 million, recording a 66.5% increase, while technological service projects brought in US$146 million, a 263.8% increase. Other sectors such as real estate and trade benefited from the rest.

Actual foreign investment in the manufacturing sector grew by 315.7% to US$126 million.

In the same timeframe, four new regional headquarters were established in Shanghai by multinational corporations, as well as two new foreign investment companies and an additional two foreign-funded research and development centres. By the end of January, a total of 674 headquarters of multinational corporations were set up in Shanghai.