China's Shenzhen a magnet for multinational corporations

SHENZHEN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China's Shenzhen is speeding up efforts to build itself into a hub of regional headquarters of multinational corporations, with a total of 105 such enterprises being officially recognized so far, the local commerce bureau said Sunday.

The 105 companies were identified in six batches by the southern metropolis in Guangdong Province. Currently a seventh batch of regional headquarters of multinational corporations are going through the identification process.

Shenzhen recently adopted new regulations to encourage multinational corporations to set up regional headquarters there, by further optimizing identification conditions and increasing facilitation measures.

Last year, 8,002 foreign-invested enterprises were set up in Shenzhen, an increase of 86.6 percent year on year, and the city's actual use of foreign capital hit 62.62 billion yuan (about 8.6 billion U.S. dollars).

From January to February this year, Shenzhen actually used 7.04 billion yuan of foreign capital. During the period, newly established foreign-invested enterprises in scientific research and technology service industry increased by 97.1 percent.