Most foreign companies in Shanghai plan to invest more in 3 years

Seeing Shanghai as their favorite investment destination on the Chinese mainland, more than 70 percent of foreign companies in the economic hub plan to expand investment in the coming three years.

According to a latest survey of Shanghai's investment environment in the eye of foreign companies, only 0.5 percent of the 213 foreign-funded businesses polled said they will shrink somehow in a three-year period to come.

The questionnaire-based survey was jointly conducted by the Shanghai consulting center for WTO affairs and the Shanghai association of foreign-invested enterprises.

The survey found that 21.6 percent of the respondents said they decided to expand investment by a big margin, while 51.2 percent of them set the expansion goal at a small scale. Around 24.9 percent of the investigated said they would maintain the status quo.

Meanwhile, 57.3 percent of the foreign companies surveyed said they had a good profitibility in recent years, and 19.2 percent of them managed to make ends meet. Only 4.2 percent made substantial losses.

The survey also found that the top concern of foreign companies in Shanghai was transport condition. It was followed by medical care, living environment and education for their children.

To improve medical care for foreign investors, officials with the Shanghai Working Committee for Foreign Investment said, the city government has spent more on improving medical services and enhanced cooperation with overseas hospitals of world fame. It has also introduced 200-plus doctors from the United States, Japan, Australia and other countries to practice medicine in the city.

By the end of Last year, Shanghai had launched 221 Sino-foreign educational institutions and projects and 21 schools catering for foreigners.

Source: Xinhua