1970-01-01 08:33:29
To date, there are approximately 33,000 foreign enterprises actually operating in Shanghai. The "survival rate" of foreign enterprises over the past 30 years exceeds 60%, according to a report from Xinhuanet.com.
In August 1980, Shanghai saw the founding of the first Chinese-foreign joint venture enterprise since reform and opening-up in the form of the Shanghai Branch of the Schindler China Elevator Company.
Since reform and opening-up, the actual operation rate of foreign enterprises in Shanghai reached 61.4%, up 28% from the national average, according to the "2008 White Paper on the Environment for Foreign Investment in Shanghai" released on December 29.
It also shows that the 33,000 foreign enterprises come from over 130 countries and regions worldwide, ranking Shanghai first among the nation's provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in terms of numbers.
Aside from the "survival rate," the profitability of foreign enterprises in Shanghai also ranks first in the nation.
In 2007, for example, the net profit margin of Shanghai's foreign enterprises in all sectors reached 5.5% and the return on assets was 6.6%.
Both figures were higher than the estimated national average levels for foreign enterprises by one to two percentage points.
In 1992, foreign enterprises in Shanghai only hired 165,200 people, accounting for 2.1% of the municipality's total number of employees.
This figure increased to 2.9382 million in 2007, representing 32% of the municipality's total employee count, up by nearly 30%.
Moreover, statistics show that, as of the end of 2007, wholly foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 75.9% of Shanghai's foreign enterprises, rising 2.8% from the previous year. Joint-venture enterprises comprised 18.6%, down 1.7% year-on-year. Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures accounted for 5.2%, down 1% year-on-year.
This shows that wholly foreign-owned enterprises have already become the convention for foreign investment.
By People's Daily Online