Multinational corporations confident with China's opening-up

Benefiting from China's opening-up in the past few decades, multinational corporations keep their strong confidence towards the development prospects in the China market in the years to come, according to senior executives of multinational companies.

"China contains the greatest development opportunities worldwide… We expect China to become a leader in global economy and peace in the future. And for us, Shanghai represents the future of China, which means a success in the city will ensure success across the country," said Minemura Masataka, general manager of Fuji Oil (China) Investment Co Ltd.

Currently, Fuji Oil operates an investment company in Shanghai, as well as four factories in Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhangjiagang of Jiangsu province and Zhaoqing of Guangdong province. "Investing a total of $30 million, we opened our China headquarters in 2022 in the hope of expanding China business to greater scale," said Yoshitaka Koketsu, chairman and CEO of Sumitomo Pharma (China) Co Ltd.

"The reasons that we choose Shanghai as the location of our headquarters are comprehensive, including its talent pool, fine business environment, Shanghai's geographical location as a gateway city, as well as the tremendous support from local governments," he said.

"China and Shanghai can offer a lot of manpower, new technology and very attractive talents for us," said Luigi Fiato, director of RINA Industry Asia-Pacific.

According to Fiato, RINA made Shanghai its Asia-Pacific headquarters about two years ago.

"It is because Shanghai is a very international place. It is a place providing us a lot of support in our development and we've found a good mix between international company investment opportunity and also good talent attraction for our company," said Fiato.

"Muji is operating more than 370 stores across China for the moment, accounting for about 60 percent of our total overseas store amount. In the future, we will continue to expand our operations across China," Sato Tsuyoshi, director and chief merchandising officer of Muji (Shanghai) Co Ltd.

According to Sato, Muji looked to better appeal to the China market with more Chinese products being offered in its Chinese stores.

The multinational corporations' senior executives made such comments during the Opportunity China: International Enterprise Cooperation and Exchange Event in Greater Hongqiao Area on Friday.

The event looks to create a platform for cooperation and exchanges among international companies, as well as facilitate these organizations to understand Shanghai's latest measures in attracting foreign businesses and optimizing business environment.