2,400 foreign-funded firms set up in SZ in first 5 months

 More than 2,400 foreign-invested companies were set up in Shenzhen in the first five months this year, attracting more than US$12.4 billion of contractual foreign investment, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Wednesday, quoting the municipal commerce bureau.

The city’s actual use of foreign capital exceeded US$3.1 billion from January to May this year, an increase of 26 percent year on year.

The inflow of foreign investment in newly emerging industries has injected strong impetus into Shenzhen’s drive to build itself into an international innovation-based city and a global commercial and trade hub, the report said.

At Minzhi Subdistrict in Longhua District, work on the South China headquarters of U.S.-based global retailer giant Costco is making its headway, which will house its South China flagship store.

Nike also set up its global technology center in Shenzhen in the first half of the year.

In terms of investment structure, according to the bureau, the tertiary and high-tech industries have absorbed a large proportion of Shenzhen’s foreign direct investment over recent years.

Sectors of next-generation information technology, high-end manufacturing, new materials, biomedicine, finance, commodity circulation and digital economy are preferred by foreign investors.

Shenzhen is ramping up efforts to attract foreign investment by optimizing its business environment and rolling out incentives.

It has introduced a spate of measures to encourage multinational companies to establish regional headquarters and organizations with headquarters functions in the city.

The measures, which highlight a tiered reward system with a maximum reward of 6 million yuan (US$928,000), became effective March 1.

The city has also taken the country’s lead to establish work stations to better serve foreign-funded businesses.

So far, two city-level stations, two district-level stations in Longgang and Longhua districts, and 10 in key industrial parks across the city have been set up.

Foreign-funded enterprises account for only 2 percent of business entities in Shenzhen. However, they generate about one-fifth of the city’s GDP, 40 percent of its import and export volume, and nearly 30 percent of its tax revenue every year, 2020 data from the commerce bureau showed.