Shanghai seeks to align its trade functions with its other essential roles as an international economic, financial, shipping, and tech innovation center by 2030.
It also expects cumulative value of goods imports and exports to exceed US$3 trillion, services to exceed US$300 billion, and offshore trade to exceed US$500 billion by 2026-2030.
The city's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) includes 22 key tasks in four areas: strengthening the city's trade hub status, promoting innovative trade development, developing the city as an international consumer hub, and expanding high-level opening-up.
At a press briefing, Shanghai Municipal People's Government Deputy Secretary-General Zhu Min said the city's status as a global trade hub will be further consolidated, its global appeal as an international consumer hub will be significantly enhanced, high-level opening up will continue to expand, and its core functions as an international trade center will be elevated by 2030.
"We will support foreign-invested enterprises to become more effectively integrated into China's vast market and encourage them to participate more deeply in cooperation within domestic industrial and supply chains," he added.
Shanghai has the highest concentration of foreign-invested regional headquarters and foreign-funded R&D centers. More than 1,100 regional headquarters of multinational companies and 670 foreign-funded R&D centers have been certified to date by the city government.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai will further support the transformation, upgrading and development of foreign-invested enterprises.
It has set specific targets for the development of multinational company regional headquarters and foreign-funded R&D centers to help foreign-invested enterprises integrate better into China's vast market and cooperate more in domestic industrial and supply chains.
Deputy director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission, Zhou Lan, said it will use major event platforms like the China International Import Expo, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the China Development Forum, as well as international competitions and industry exhibitions, to promote investment.
Flagship events such as the Shanghai City Investment Promotion Conference will also be utilized to comprehensively build an international investment promotion narrative for the city, thereby making investment and cooperation for foreign-funded enterprises smoother, Zhou added.
Editor: Liu Qi
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Oct 10, 2026
