Shanghai has become well known as a magnet for foreign direct investment, which last year poured in by a record amount. What has been scarcely appreciated until now, however, is the city's allure for investors from other parts of China - specifically, two cities in neighbouring Zhejiang province.
A study conducted by a leading think-tank for the Shanghai government shows that Wenzhou and Ningbo, two of the mainland's wealthier cities known for their aggressive private-sector expansion, are pumping tens of billions of dollars into China's commercial capital.
This year, according to the study by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, no less than 10 billion yuan (HK$9.4 billion) is expected to move from these two cities to Shanghai. It will feed into a range of sectors, from property to infrastructure, will be seen in the ownership of private hospitals and schools, and will end up in the city's banks as deposits.
'These are stunning findings,' said Wang Lingyi, an economist at the academy who helped with the study, which will be used by the Shanghai government and several central government agencies.
Perhaps just as eye-opening, Mr Wang told the South China Morning Post, was the study's findings on the huge amounts of capital built up in the two cities by the hundreds of thousands of private enterprises that form the backbone of their economies.
Wenzhou, he said, was found to have an estimated 700 billion yuan in personal savings. Put together with Ningbo's estimated 100 billion yuan, this would account for about one-tenth of China's overall household savings of 8.7 trillion yuan.
