District on fast track to becoming a 'global service provider'

A series of deals have been signed to fuel Jing'an's aim to become a "global service provider."

The district has been working for years to gather world-renowned professional service firms, such as accountants, consultants and lawyers, to provide one-stop world-class services at residents' doorsteps.

A further step was made at the recent "Gathering in Jing'an, Linking the World" High-End Professional Services and Global Urban Development Symposium, where the Jing'an Development and Reform Commission signed a strategic cooperation with the Shanghai Institute for Global City.

Under the agreement, they will launch research projects, hold international visits and organize other academic exchanges to promote high-end development in its service industry.

The symposium also witnessed the launch of the "GaWC Jing'an Observation Station," the only one of its kind in Shanghai.

GaWC, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, is a think tank that studies relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It has sites known as "observation stations" in cities across the world to collect data for urban and globalization study.

Meanwhile, the "GaWC Shanghai Professional Service Development Index" project was launched, which is expected to provide long-term strategic support to the development of the city's high-end service industry.

Yu Yong, the district's Party chief, said it has become Jing'an's functional advantage for gathering a cluster of global high-end service providers, and radiating to surrounding places.

Qiu Wenjin, deputy director of the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, encouraged Jing'an to strengthen efforts to support local firms to expand into the overseas market.

Jing'an initiated the "global service provider" project in 2019, and later it escalated to a city-level strategy considered a major economic driver behind the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region.

Currently, the district has 92 reputable service providers on its list.

They include consultancy Bain, accounting firm KPMG, advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, law firm Jones Day, bank BNP and testing service provider TüV Rheinland.

They have helped to create Jing'an a magnet for business.

Last year, the district's business environment ranked second in the city.

The number of regional headquarters of multinational companies in Jing'an has increased from 82 in 2019 to 124 in 2023.

Over the same period, foreign-related business tax income has increased from 38.25 billion yuan to 43.4 billion yuan, and foreign direct investment from US$1.2 billion to US$1.25 billion.

With regional offices in Jing'an, some of these service providers have expanded to the Yangtze River Delta region. KPMG has opened branches in Hefei, Ningbo, Nantong and other regional cities, and TüV Rheinland has set up labs in Hefei and Suzhou.

Jing'an has set up a 10-million-yuan fund to grant subsidies to those who pay for services from Jing'an-based service providers.

Next, the district will work to gather more GaWC-listed service providers, and encourage them to launch new services in emerging sectors such as low carbon, artificial intelligence and blockchain.

A series of measures will be rolled out to encourage domestic service providers to set up overseas branches, or expand their international network through investment and acquisition. A guide will be released, and training sessions will be offered.