Volvo's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Pudong New Area, Shanghai [Photo/chinanews.com]

Since the establishment of the Jinqiao Comprehensive Bonded Area in 2002, Pudong New Area has never slowed its institutional innovation, making it a hot destination for global investors to set up regional headquarters of multinational companies (MNCs), according to local media reports May 8.

"We have benefited a lot from the area's institutional innovation over the past 18 years, and that's why we've decided to move our regional headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai," said Zhan Xu, executive director of the China Volvo Construction Equipment company.

Zhan added that Volvo is confident about the future of Shanghai's development, and the company will surely gain more opportunities for mutual benefit and achieve win-win results in the process of participating in the city's opening-up and development.

According to local authorities, Pudong government has signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Volvo, and the latter unveiled its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai's Pudong.

Volvo said that its regional headquarters in Pudong will handle half of its global business in the future, which will inject strong growth momentum to the development of Pudong.

Apart from Volvo, more and more MNCs are setting their regional headquarters in Pudong. Statistics show that so far this year, eight regional MNC headquarters have been established there, and the area is now home to 340 regional MNC headquarters, accounting for nearly half of Shanghai's total number. 

Zhang Yi, CEO of market consultancy iiMedia Research, said that Shanghai boasts multiple advantages for the growth of MNCs, including business climate, talents, regional advantages and financial foundation, and the favorable policies released by Shanghai authorities will also create great opportunities for MNCs.

Yang Ye, head of the Jinqiao Administrative Committee, said that in the future, Jinqiao will facilitate the zone's development of its institutional innovation, and promote the upgrading and transformation of manufacturing enterprises into regional MNC headquarters.