Headquarters economy continues to prosper in Shanghai

The 36th certification ceremony for multinational company's regional headquarters and research and development (R&D) centers was held in Shanghai on Feb 2.

At the ceremony, 20 regional headquarters and 10 R&D centers were certified. Among them, five regional headquarters and one R&D center are from Pudong New Area.

Merck KGaA, a German multinational company whose business lines include Healthcare, Life Sciences and Electronics, set up a regional headquarter in Pudong 90 years ago.

In the past decade, the company has poured more than six billion yuan into China's market, and it is expected to increase its investment in its Merck China Biology Testing Center and Electronics Technology Center China, which are both located in Pudong.

Two researchers are at work at Merck China Biology Testing Center. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_01c6f7b4cf3d]

One of the first foreign-invested companies that settled in the Zhang Jiang High-tech Park, Garrett Advancing Motion brought its cutting-edge technologies to China in 1994.

With its regional headquarter, manufacturing factory and R&D center in China all located in Pudong, the company has to date delivered about 3,000 turbo charged products to Chinese enterprises.

By the end of 2022, Pudong had gathered a total of 419 regional headquarters of multinational companies, accounting for 47 percent of Shanghai's total. At the same time, there were more than 18,000 enterprises located in the Zhang Jiang High-tech Park, 53 of which were regional headquarters of multinational companies.