As the leader of China’s economic development and the forefront of reform and opening up, Shanghai has always attached great importance to attracting foreign investment. Recently, the Shanghai Government deliberated and adopted a series of policy measures to promote the sustained economic recovery, and at the same time actively responded to the Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment in 2025 (the “Action Plan”) issued by the State Council, aiming at further optimizing the business environment, stimulating the vitality of foreign investment with a higher level through more precise, efficient and coordinated measures. This article will introduce a series of recent measures taken by Shanghai to promote foreign investment and respond to the action plan, and discuss their impact on foreign-funded enterprises and potential investors in Shanghai.
On February 6, 2025, the executive meeting of the Shanghai Government deliberated and adopted a package of policy measures to promote sustained economic recovery. On February 13, 2025, the Shanghai Government held a news briefing, saying that this package of policy measures would promote the “stabilize quantity and improve quality” of foreign capital, emphasizing that on the basis of stabilizing the scale of foreign capital, more attention should be paid to improving the quality and level of foreign capital utilization. This positioning is highly consistent with the requirements of the State Council’s subsequent action plan released on February 19, 2025, and also indicates that Shanghai will further strengthen the support and guarantee of stable foreign trade. The policy measures include the following:
1. Make a list of major foreign investment projects in Shanghai in 2025: make precise policies to improve the efficiency of project landing
Making a list of major foreign investment projects is an important starting point for Shanghai to stabilize foreign investment. By sorting out and classifying foreign-funded projects with strategic significance in key areas, the government can concentrate resources and provide more accurate policy support and factor guarantee, such as opening up green channels in land supply, energy security, environmental impact assessment approval and so on, and speeding up the project landing process. This is of great significance for attracting large-scale foreign investment projects with leading and demonstration effects, and can effectively boost foreign investment confidence.
The formulation of the list of major foreign investment projects is helpful to improve the predictability and transparency of policies. Foreign-funded enterprises can have a clearer understanding of Shanghai’s investment priorities and policy orientation, so as to make more informed investment decisions. At the same time, the “one-to-one” services and customized solutions provided by the government for the projects in the list can effectively reduce the investment risks and operating costs of enterprises and enhance the attractiveness of investment.
2. Implement the promotion plan for the classification of regional headquarters of multinational corporations: intensive cultivation to enhance the economic function of headquarters
As the city with the most concentrated regional headquarters of multinational corporations in China, Shanghai has been committed to improving the level of headquarters economy. The classification promotion plan proposed this time means that Shanghai will provide differentiated policy support according to the regional headquarters of multinational companies of different types and development stages, such as providing more targeted incentives in R&D innovation, treasury management and investment decision-making. This will help attract more high-energy regional headquarters to Shanghai and encourage existing headquarters to expand their business scope and functions in China.
Supporting the regional headquarters of multinational corporations is an important measure for Shanghai to attract foreign investment. By implementing the classified promotion plan, Shanghai can give full play to the radiation and driving role of the headquarters economy, attract more upstream and downstream enterprises and supporting service institutions to gather, and form a more complete industrial chain and value chain.
3. Deepen the construction of overseas integrated service platform: optimize services and help enterprises “go global”
Stabilizing foreign investment should not only attract foreign investment to “bring in”, but also support enterprises to “go global”. Deepening the construction of overseas comprehensive service platform can provide enterprises with one-stop services including legal consultation, risk assessment, market information and financing support, and reduce the risks and costs of overseas investment and operation. This is of great significance to enhance the international operation ability of enterprises and build a new pattern of two-way investment.
In order to further release the consumption potential, the Shanghai Municipal government launched the Several Measures on Further Promoting the high-quality development of Shanghai’s Debut Economy to encourage the combination of new product launches with sports, tourism and leisure activities to stimulate the “debut economy”. Shanghai Vice Mayor Hua Yuan announced the latest incentive policy, which will give domestic and foreign brands a one-time subsidy of 1 million yuan to set up an Asian or global launch store in Shanghai, as well as subsidies for events and performances. In addition, an additional subsidy of 200,000 yuan will be provided for events and brand launches held during the launch season from March to May each year.
Shanghai has issued a series of policy measures to promote sustained economic recovery and actively respond to the action plan of stabilizing foreign investment in 2025, which is an important measure taken by Shanghai in the new stage of development to further improve the level of opening up and build a new pattern of high-quality utilization of foreign capital. With its open and inclusive attitude, Shanghai is attracting brands and enterprises from all over the world to jointly build a economic center full of vitality and innovation.
Preface As the leader of China’s economic development and the forefront of reform and opening up, Shanghai has always attached great importance to attracting foreign investment. Recently, the Shanghai Government deliberated and adopted a series of policy measures to promote the sustained economic recovery, and at the same time actively responded to the Action Plan
In recent years, the winter sports industry has seen unprecedented global growth, particularly with the successful hosting of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. These events have not only brought significant attention to winter sports but have also spurred a surge in international investment and collaboration. Legal sectors such
Introduction With the continuous improvement of labor laws and regulations, open-ended labor contracts, as a form of contract that provides stronger protection for the rights and interests of employees, have attracted increasing attention. In particular, whether employees have the right to demand the signing of open-ended labor contracts after two consecutive fixed-term labor contracts has
