As we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the People's City concept this year, Yangpu, as the district where it was first proposed, has witnessed booming digital economy development and vibrant urban life. Let's feel this increasingly "YOUNG" people's city together...

In November 2023, during the 6th China International Import Expo, Nike announced that in 2024, it will build the Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL) at its Greater China headquarters located in our district. How will this lab serve athletes and Chinese consumers? The answer is to focus on needs and provide customized services. In January 2024, Henkel's Consumer Goods Asia Research and Development Center, with a total investment of approximately RMB 100 million, was completed and put into operation in Yangpu District's Bay Valley Technology Park. This is Henkel's largest research and development center for consumer brands in Asia...

Our district is an important gathering place for foreign investment in Shanghai. It currently has about 1,300 foreign-invested enterprises. In the past five years, 18 foreign-invested headquarters and R&D centers have been introduced, accumulating to 44. Global Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders such as Nike, Siemens, Continental, Henkel, Vitesco Technologies, Lear, Ford, ThyssenKrupp, IBM, AECOM, and Dell continue to gather. Key projects of foreign-invested enterprises have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. The automotive software and information technology service industries have shown a clustering trend in our district. In the new practice of the People's City, our district, the warmest city, is creating a "Warm Yangpu Shores" ecosystem circle for foreign-invested enterprises.

In this "warm window" of our district, we can "see" the pulse of Shanghai's development

Our district is creating the "warmest district" for the business environment. On the one hand, it cultivates, encourages, and supports multinational enterprises in the district to add new business divisions and business segments. On the other hand, it actively "goes global" to continue investment promotion... In our district, foreign-invested enterprises have ushered in a new round of major development opportunities. According to the "Shanghai's Implementation Plan for Promoting Foreign Business Investment in a Coordinated Manner", our district has formulated the "Yangpu District's Work Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment in 2024". Through vigorously implementing the landing and additional investment of foreign capital, promoting the quality improvement and capacity enhancement of foreign enterprises, holding brand investment promotion events, and strengthening foreign business investment protection, it guides and encourages foreign-invested projects, technologies, and funds to converge in our district, striving to create the "Warm Yangpu Shores" foreign business service brand.

The morning's first ray of sunshine cast upon the multiple layers of glass curtain walls of the multinational enterprise headquarters office buildings on Dalian Road, Yangpu. Office workers began their new day of work. Amidst the layered silhouettes, the industrial yellow label of Vitesco Technologies stood out vividly.

"My company is in Yangpu. It's like a window, allowing me to constantly feel the pulse of Shanghai's development," said Gu Ruihua, the departing President of Vitesco Technologies China, who has witnessed the rise of the headquarters enterprises on Dalian Road and the gradual process of Yangpu's business environment becoming "warmer" over the past decade.

According to the introduction, our district has already clarified the work responsibilities of increasing enterprise visits, accelerating implementation and landing, strengthening data research, promoting headquarters clustering, attracting talent gathering, strengthening city-district coordination, enhancing departmental linkages, creating brand events, leveraging the CIIE effect, providing efficient services, and safeguarding foreign business equity. Through establishing and improving eight work mechanisms, including the working group promotion mechanism, foreign business investment promotion coordination mechanism, Shanghai-based institution liaison and communication mechanism, project information communication and collaborative advancement mechanism, event coordination mechanism, service response mechanism, policy guarantee mechanism, and assessment mechanism, our district promotes the effective implementation of work on stabilizing foreign investment.

Serving Enterprises Is a Systematic Project Requiring Coordination and Collaboration

Initially, Henkel's consumer goods R&D center had strict requirements for floor space, environmental impact assessment, building construction, fire protection facilities, and other aspects, so the enterprise had been unable to find a suitable location for a long time. Upon learning of this situation, the business department of Xinjiangwancheng Subdistrict took the initiative to connect with the relevant person in charge of the enterprise, understanding the difficulties and problems in detail, and fully assisting in finding a location. Eventually, a space meeting the requirements was found on the top floor of a building in Bay Valley Technology Park. Issues such as sewage handling paths and the setting of enterprise signs on the rooftop faced obstacles. The subdistrict took the lead in forming a "four-party consultation" mechanism, bringing together the construction party of Bay Valley Technology Park, the property owner, and the enterprise. They held multiple on-site coordination meetings and invited functional departments to provide on-site guidance and formulate construction plans.

In 2023, the R&D center successfully started construction in Bay Valley Technology Park. "We continuously explore the optimal solutions for serving enterprises, strengthen government-enterprise dialogue, streamline business processes, and continue to leverage the multiplier effect of enterprise-related services to help enterprises move forward with ease," said a relevant person in charge from Xinjiangwancheng Subdistrict.

It is evident that serving enterprises and creating the "warmest district" for the business environment is a systematic project requiring coordination and collaboration. Regarding "promoting foreign business investment in a coordinated manner", our district has put forward optimization ideas. In terms of work mechanism coordination, it is suggested to strengthen the guidance of meetings to help districts clarify directions and improve the effectiveness and decision-making of work implementation. In terms of investment promotion information exchange, it is suggested to strengthen two-way information push based on each district's industry orientation to help district-level departments better undertake city-level projects and form two-way interaction. In terms of city-district collaboration, it is suggested to jointly hold large-scale investment promotion events based on each district's focus countries, industries, and regions to form a pattern of joint planning, participation, and promotion by the city and districts. In terms of personnel team building, it is suggested to further promote talent exchange by selecting outstanding cadres to conduct short-term rotations and exchanges in city-level departments, international investment promotion institutions, and overseas offices to broaden international perspectives and accumulate practical experience.

At the "2023 German Enterprises Entering Yangpu Promotion Event and Sino-German Enterprise Industry Matchmaking Roundtable Meeting", Siemens welcomed a group of "German compatriots" - a delegation of the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad Alliance consisting of over 30 German enterprises. After visiting Yangpu Riverside and GKIC and surveying enterprises such as Siemens and Roman Technology, the Yangpu trip left Martin Klose, Chief Representative of the Guangzhou Representative Office of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, full of expectations for the prospects of Sino-German collaboration: "The university resources in our district are renowned, and they have already established collaborative relationships with German academic institutions in multiple fields. In the future, we hope to further extend the collaboration beyond academia."

Such events are ubiquitous in our district, including international entrepreneur roundtables, digital empowerment roundtables, foreign enterprise policy interpretation conferences, and more. In Martin Klose's view, strengthening people-to-people exchanges is crucial for enhancing collaboration. "We are committed to creating more such opportunities to bring us together and jointly promote more exchanges and collaboration in business."

Innovation Is the "Growth Driver" for Both Enterprises and Our District

We learned that our district currently has about 1,300 foreign-invested enterprises. In the past five years, 18 foreign-invested headquarters and R&D centers have been introduced, accumulating to 44. Global Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders such as Nike, Siemens, Continental, Henkel, Vitesco Technologies, Lear, Ford, ThyssenKrupp, IBM, AECOM, and Dell continue to gather.

"Innovation has always been an important growth driver for us. We noticed early on that the needs of Chinese and Asian consumers differ from those of European consumers," said Sun Yingqing, Director of Henkel (China) Consumer Goods Research and Development Center, at the groundbreaking of the R&D center.

Building a "1+2+3+4" innovation-driven modern industrial system with the digital economy as the core, "intelligent+" and "Internet+" as basic support, and three Hundred Billion Level clusters and four emerging fields as the development focus is the powerful "engine" driving Yangpu's innovation development as it sets out again. Coordinating factor resources, strengthening collaborative sharing, and safeguarding foreign business equity, our district, the warmest city, is creating a "Warm Yangpu Shores" ecosystem circle for foreign-invested enterprises.