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Shanghai officials are seeking to revive confidence among multinational firms bruised and frustrated by the city’s COVID-19 lockdown by holding multiple meetings with foreign firms and easing a key border requirement for overseas workers.<\/P>
The image of China’s most cosmopolitan city and its biggest business hub was badly damaged by the two-month lockdown, with countless expatriates relocating and foreign businesses warning that they are reconsidering investment plans.<\/P>
The Shanghai government plans to hold 20 meetings this month with foreign firms engaged in key industries such as automobiles, trade, semiconductors and biomedicine, according to a report by the Jiefang Daily, a Shanghai-government backed newspaper, on Sunday. The report was reposted on the Shanghai city website.<\/P>
The firms would be picked from major investment countries and regions, including the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.<\/P>
The first of two meetings held so far was attended by executives from U.S. blue chips such as Procter & Gamble PG.N and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N, the report said. The second meeting included automakers Tesla TSLA.O, General Motors GM.N and Ford F.N.<\/P>
The companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Wednesday.<\/P>
In addition, the European Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday it had been informed during a meeting with the city’s vice mayor that Shanghai will no longer require official invitation letters, so-called PU letters, for foreigners returning for work and their dependents, addressing what had become a bugbear for the expat community.<\/P>
China began in early 2020 to require foreigners to obtain PU letters as part of their visa application as it dramatically tightened border controls when the pandemic hit.<\/P>
Many firms had complained about the difficulties and long waits in obtaining the document, which impeded the hiring of foreign staff.<\/P>
The removal of this requirement was “an initiative from central government to encourage work and production resumption in Shanghai,” the European Chamber said.<\/P>
Asked for comment on Wednesday, the Shanghai government referred to remarks city official Gu Jun made at a press conference in late May, in which he acknowledged that the epidemic had impacted foreign trade and investment in the city.<\/P>
He said the city would take measures to boost confidence among businesess and support multinationals in setting up regional headquarters and research centers in Shanghai. It did not provide further comment.<\/P>
Tom Simpson, managing director of the China-Britain Business Council, said it was expecting to meet with the Shanghai government in the coming weeks.<\/P>
Shanghai had provided its members “more practical” business resumption support including issuing logistics permits and reopening warehouses, he said.<\/P>
During the lockdown, Shanghai tried to keep factories open under “closed loop” operations but businesses said the arrangements posed numerous difficulties.<\/P>
The lack of flights into China \u2014 the vast majority have been cancelled for more than two years \u2014 also remains a key hindrance.<\/P>
China has resolutely stuck to a “zero-COVID” policy that aims to eradicate the spread of the virus, an approach that is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world.<\/P>
Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber, said the zero-COVID policy was not just denting Shanghai’s attractiveness, but China as a whole, especially as other rival markets open and try to lure companies away from China.<\/P>
“The world is not going to wait for China to clean this mess,” he said.<\/P>
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Source: Voice of America<\/P>
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