At the 2021 Shenzhen Global Investment Promotion Conference (GIPC) held on 
December 15, more than 260 projects were signed, with a total investment of 
more than 820 billion yuan.

Fruitful results have been delivered. Shenzhen, with innovation as its 
signature, has accelerated the building of the pilot demonstration zone, 
enabling the gloomy world economy amid the epidemic, to feel the momentum of 
investing in China and Shenzhen.  

The conference featured various high-tech and international elements, such as 
live streaming and Extended Reality (XR) technology, as well as a promotional 
video full of technological and futuristic sense, bilingual host, simultaneous 
interpretation in Chinese, English, German, and Japanese. Its online investment 
promotion exhibition halls provided an immersive interactive experience, 
demonstrating highlights of each district of Shenzhen, according the Organizing 
Committee of GIPC.

GIPC included 12 district-level investment promotion events and overseas events 
held in 12 cities in 5 continents before the main event on December 15, the 
latter of which witnessed the signing at site of 44 major projects including 
ABB, Metro mall and American Express.  

Cao Yang, head of ABB Electric Transportation business unit in China, a Fortune 
500 company, believes that Shenzhen is the highland of digital development, and 
smart buildings, electric transportation are developing very fast. The rapid 
development of emerging industries constantly drives global enterprises to 
invest. "We deeply feel that Shenzhen, as a city of scientific and 
technological innovation, has the comprehensive advantages of complete 
industrial chain and talents, as well as supporting policies. This provides 
more confidence for ABB to further increase its investment in Shenzhen," he 
said. In the conference, ABB settled its electric transportation project's 
China headquarters in Shenzhen.

Jian Zheng, deputy director of the Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, 
said that many famous French enterprises, including Airbus and Sanofi, have 
also taken root in Shenzhen and look forward to strengthening exchanges and 
win-win cooperation.  

Sun Lu, head of Airbus China Innovation Center, said the center, which was 
officially inaugurated in Shenzhen in 2019, is one of airbus's two innovation 
centers worldwide. "Despite the epidemic, the center has cooperated with local 
suppliers in Shenzhen for over 100 orders. We also cooperate with Tencent, 
Appotronics Corporation Ltd. and other enterprises to provide new aviation 
application products," he said.

Official data show that in the first 10 months of this year, Shenzhen has 
attracted more than 20.99 billion USD foreign contractual capital and 8.8 
billion USD were in actual use, with an year on year growth up to 19.8 percent 
and 24.8 percent, respectively, maintaining a stable and good trend.

It can be seen from the hot spots of foreign investment that Shenzhen has 
accelerated the development of strategic emerging industries and future 
industries, built a highland of scientific and technological and industrial 
innovation with global influence, and brought new opportunities to global 
investment.

According to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and 
Social Development of Shenzhen and the Long-range Objectives through the Year 
2035, Shenzhen, for the first time, included the added value of core industries 
in the digital economy as a proportion of GDP.

Shenzhen's blueprint in emerging industries mainly relies on the accumulation 
of technology in scientific and technological innovation over the years. In 
fact, Shenzhen leads China in the number of operational data centers, 5G base 
stations and industrial scale. Shenzhen's innovation force, represented by 
Huawei and ZTE, is an important engine for Shenzhen to build itself into an 
international science and technology innovation center in the Greater Bay Area. 
In the process of building a pilot demonstration zone, Shenzhen has 
continuously optimized the international business environment and attracted 
talents worldwide.  

The participants generally agreed that Shenzhen, as one of the first six pilot 
cities for improving business environment promulgated by the State Council of 
China, will improve the level of cross-border trade facilitation, optimize the 
management of foreign investment and international talent services, and 
concentrate on creating a high-quality world-class business environment, which 
will further enhance the attractiveness of the city.

"I think the general situation is good for Shenzhen, because in the south part 
of China, especially in the GBA, we have very good business environment," said 
Klaus Zenkel, Chairman of the South China Office of Commerce of the European 
Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

Shenzhen is also actively promoting the legislation of the Special Economic 
Zone of the "Regulations on Foreign Investment in the Shenzhen Special Economic 
Zone", proposing to fully implement the pre-entry national treatment with 
negative list management system, to comply with international rules, and to 
comprehensively improve the level of opening-up.

Source: The Organizing Committee of GIPC