Hongkou District held the 2024 Key Enterprises and Buildings (Parks) Commendation Meeting on February 23, in the first working week after the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, to recognize a group of key enterprises and buildings (parks).
The "Hongkou District Business Environment 7.0 Action Plan" was unveiled at the event, and the second "Monthly Signing" event for attracting investment in Hongkou was launched, with 18 key projects signing agreements on site. This event is also part of the city’s "Investment Promotion Season."
Li Qian, the Party Secretary of Hongkou, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Together with other district leaders, they awarded enterprises and buildings (parks) that have made outstanding contributions to the economic development of Hongkou.
Li Qian said Hongkou will persist in creating an "endlessly superior" first-class business environment, strive to create an honest and fair legal ecosystem, a streamlined and efficient administrative ecosystem, and a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Hongkou aims to be an excellent partner in enterprise development, working together with entrepreneurs to create a new high-quality development situation, Li said.
The 7.0 version further upgrades and empowers the construction of a first-class international business environment. The draft plan invites comments and suggestions from the society and entrepreneurs.
In 2023, the district registered 8,527 new market entities, nearly tripling that of 2022, ranking first in the city. The total number of high-level enterprise headquarters in the district reached 72, also nearly tripling since the end of the 2020.
About 100 key foreign investment projects from 25 countries and regions, such as Japan's HADO, the UAE's Borouge, and Singapore's CapitaLand, were settled in Hongkou, with actual foreign investment increasing by 17.2 percent, higher than the city's average by 16.7 percentage points, ranking fifth in the city.
Hongkou has created a "1+N" service model for enterprises, where "1" refers to providing a "one-on-one" dedicated service steward, and "N" refers to forming service teams by relevant departments according to different demands of enterprises.
Hongkou tailored a talent exclusive service package, for instance, for the Danli Biotech, which has been rooted in Hongkou for over 20 years and had a significant demand for high-tech talents.
The district’s Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Investment Promotion Office, and Investment Service Center jointly provided professional solutions, followed up in a timely manner, and helped the company introduce excellent talents, solving urgent needs.
Shanghai Future Sports Technology, a subsidiary of Japan's AR technology sports company meleap, focuses on developing offline AR entertainment solutions.
General Manager Lin Xianjian said the key factor that led the company to establish its China headquarters in Hongkou was the strong "human touch" of the Hongkou business environment.
The 7.0 action plan focuses on building a "legal government, honest government, service government, and empowering government."
The measures include focusing on the entire life cycle of enterprises, implementing reform actions benchmarked against the World Bank; focusing on the high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises (private enterprises), implementing enterprise development companion actions; focusing on enhancing the quality of urban areas, and implementing urban renewal service actions.
“The 7.0 version is more international, market-oriented, and rule-of-law oriented, focusing more on Hongkou's key work and enterprises' feelings and demands,” said an official from the district’s Development and Reform Commission.
For example, the 7.0 version focuses on urban renewal services, as a key work of Hongkou this year. The plan tailors a streamlined project evaluation and approval method for engineering companies, simplifying the approval process and shortening the construction schedules.
The second "Monthly Signing" event for attracting investment in Hongkou was also officially launched, with 18 key projects signing agreements.
These projects not only cover traditional fields such as finance, shipping, and trade but also involve emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, green low-carbon, and new energy, further enhancing the regional economic vitality.
Hongkou District has placed great emphasis on technological innovation and entrepreneurship, actively creating a good innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, the district government said.
The district has cultivated and introduced a large number of high-energy, high-growth high-tech enterprises, forming an upstream and downstream enterprise cluster.
Beikechuang Biotech Industrial Park, for instance, the first biotech park in Hongkou District, has created a new ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in Hongkou.
Tengchen Bio, one of the first batch of enterprises to settle in the park, has independently developed several basic reagent kits that achieve domestic substitution of the same performance of imported products for the first time. It has become the only high-tech platform technology company in the world that owns a complete industry chain for early screening of serious diseases.
Wang Xinhua, the CFO of the company, said its success not only shows Hongkou's determination and courage to develop the technology industry, but also reflects the company's optimism about the potential and prospects of Hongkou's future development.
Yeeuu is an internet technology company that integrates fiber material research and development, artificial intelligence algorithms, and big data technology innovation applications. The company's dynamic portable electrocardiogram instruments can monitor vital signs continuously for 24 hours.
The company has settled in Zhangjiang Hongkou Park Smart Health Medical Industry Base, considering the industry cluster of smart healthcare and Internet + big health enterprises within the industry base. Yeeuu has cooperated with Shanghai Panorama Medical Imaging within the industry base, further strengthening the industrial chain.