Hongkou District has released a new guideline to better serve and support foreign companies that wish to set up headquarters in the district, ahead of the first China International Import Expo.

The guideline aims to cap the demands of multinational enterprises to open headquarters in the district and offer greater assistance on taxation, funding and personnel.

Hongkou aims to offer faster approval procedures and friendlier services to attract foreign enterprises, according to the district government.

The northern downtown district has been improving its business environment and simplifying business registrations. The registration period for foreign businesses has been shortened by a third.

The district government has also worked on intellectual property rights protection and services for overseas professionals.

Hongkou, which is named after the historical Hongkougang River, was one of the earliest regions in Shanghai to open up to the outside world and is an important gathering place of shipping, finance, trade and materials businesses. The blood of Hongkou is filled with the spirit of opening up.

During 40 years of reform and opening up, Hongkou has established a modern service industry system mainly on financial services, cultural innovation and environmental protection.

Hub of foreign enterpises

Foreign investment has been important to Hongkou’s development.

Over 2,000 foreign companies were based there in 2017, contributing over 35 percent of the district’s total tax revenues. The district has attracted US$11.2 billion in contracted foreign investment over a decade.

Hongkou-based companies trade with about 200 countries and regions, with annual international trade volume of US$5 billion.

Foreign enterprises are prospering in Hongkou thanks to the huge potential of the Chinese market, relatively low costs and Hongkou’s full support.

Multinational giants such as the Carnival Corporation, Capitaland, Panasonic and BWM have entered the Chinese market from Hongkou and been a great success.

Hongkou will keep concentrating on requests by companies to develop a higher standard economy, Hongkou said.

As a key site for Hongkou’s development, the North Bund area along the Huangpu River has gathered over 4,500 shipping companies and 1,200 financial companies and institutions.

The functions, image and quality of the North Bund, once home to the city’s first shipping harbor, have been greatly improved.

Over 3 million square meters of office buildings have been built along the riverside to offer a first-class environment and services to global companies and professionals.

The era of the North Bund’s cruise liner industry began in October 2003 with the arrival of the Royal Caribbean International, the first international cruise liner in the city.

It took 10 years to turn the 140-year-old Gaoyang Road Dock, the city’s and the nation’s first port for foreign cargo, into a cruise liner hub. Docks and crane yards along the river have become wharfs for international liners.

Hundreds of porters have been replaced by over a million foreign visitors from all around world every year.

The North Bund area opposite Lujiazui of the Pudong New Area has become a world-class cruise liner hub and finan­cial center supporting the city’s plan to become an international shipping cen­ter by 2020.

In the next step, Hongkou aims to drive Shanghai’s ambition to become a global city of excellence by 2035 and take full advantage of the import expo to focus on the development of the North Bund.

It will stick to the highest standards to create a more open, convenient and international business environment to attract innovative companies, entrepreneurs and professionals.

Innovation center

Hongkou covers 23.4 square kilometers with a population of over 800,000. The district has been actively involved in the strategic campaign of Shanghai to build an international economic, financial, trade and shipping centers.

It has also participated in the new drive of the city to build a science and technology innovation center with global influence.

Hongkou is creating three key functional zones and other zones with distinctive features, such as the Green Carbon Valley and the Shanghai Music Valley.

Hongkou also has a rich cultural legacy as a place known as the origin of haipai (Shanghai-style) culture, the cradle of modem culture and home to a great number of leading cultural figures.

The district features a number of historic sites, including the Memorial Site of the 4th National Congress of the CPC, the League of Leftist Writers Museum, and homes of renowned writers and intellectuals from early last century.

It became a safe haven for many Jewish refugees fleeing the horrors of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and the early 1940s.

The North Bund Financial Hub aims to become one of Shanghai’s three major financial hubs following the Bund and Lujiazui.