A view of Shanghai's Pudong New Area. [Photo by Wang Gang/For China Daily]

Shanghai has always been one of the most favored destinations for foreign investors and one of the most preferred places for multinational companies when deploying their global supply chains and industrial chains, said Shanghai mayor Gong Zheng on Jan 27.

Last year, Shanghai's foreign investments exceeded $24 billion, surpassing $20 billion for the fourth consecutive year. Meanwhile, the number of regional headquarters of multinational corporations and foreign-invested R&D centers in Shanghai grew by 65 and 30 respectively last year, bringing the total to 956 and 561 respectively, said Gong during a municipal press conference after the conclusion of the annual plenary sessions of the city's legislative and political advisory bodies.

He said that the city will make more efforts in further expand the breadth of market opening-up and unveil more measures to promote investment. They include holding investment promotion activities overseas, providing better support in land use, energy consumption, environmental impact assessment, and financing, and supporting foreign-funded enterprises to invest more in green development, digital transformation, and scientific and technological innovation.

Also, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government launched the beta version of a new online portal for expat services on Jan 1. The portal serves as a one-stop platform for foreigners, regardless of whether they are looking for information related to work, travel or study in Shanghai.

"International Services Shanghai, an English portal for the Shanghai municipal government, has been launched. The positioning of the platform is to show welcome and offer help so that expats can better understand Shanghai and integrate into the city," said Gong.

"We'll go on to enhance its multilingual, scenario-based function to provide expats with more authoritative policy advice as well as updated information about daily life, investment, education, and tourism," he said.