EU chamber highlights measures Shanghai should undertake to attract foreign talent and businesses, undo damage of last year’s Covid-19 lockdown

Name: Shanghai Disneyland reopens as China eases strict zero-Covid restrictions
Uploaded: 2023-02-14T12:45:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: Shanghai Disneyland reopens as China eases strict zero-Covid restrictions

Don’t see efforts being made to maintain and nurture ‘a fragile ecosystem’, EUCham president says

Still difficult to get visas for people expecting to work in or travel to China, EUCham’s vice-president and chair of its Shanghai chapter says

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The Bund in Shanghai. In its position paper, EUCham makes 37 proposals to help Shanghai transform itself into a regional headquarters economy and world-leading innovation hub. Photo: EPA-EFE

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 8:45pm, 14 Feb 2023

Shanghai must ease visa procedures, loosen regulation of cross-border acquisitions and remove market-access barriers to restore confidence in its economy, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCham) said on Tuesday.

Mainland China’s biggest city and economic capital must offer a predictable business environment while taking action to ease small companies’ financial burdens as it pursues a sound post-Covid-19 economic recovery, according to the latest Shanghai Position Paper compiled by EUCham.

“It is a fragile ecosystem that needs to be maintained and nurtured,” Joerg Wuttke, EUCham’s president, said during a media briefing. “We don’t really see these [efforts being made].”

The EUCham comments are significant because Shanghai, which has for long been recognised as the “dragon head” of China’s economy, is highly dependent on multinational businesses for jobs and taxes. Foreign businesses account for 25 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP), and whose tax payments represent a third of Shanghai’s total. About one in every five jobs in the city is provided by a foreign employer.

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Shanghai Disneyland reopens as China eases strict zero-Covid restrictions

The number of foreign employees with European companies operating in China has been in decline since last year, Wuttke said. The authorities must simplify visa processes for professionals such as teachers and medical doctors, so that they can offer services needed by expats in China, he added.