(Yicai Global) July 12 -- "Our preliminary statistics show over 90 percent of the 100 opening-up policies of Shanghai can be implemented within this year," said Zhou Bo, executive vice mayor of the eastern Chinese city. 

The mega-metropolis formulated its 100 Further Opening-up Policies of Shanghai action plan on July 10 to give effect to national major measures for China's further opening and hasten the formation of a new economic order on that basis.

The new measures center on liberalization of and cooperation in the financial sector, the setup of a more open industrial system, assumption of the lead in protecting intellectual property rights, construction of a new framework to facilitate imports, and creation of a first-class business environment. China's new high-level opening-up measures will help various projects take root in the city this year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China's several key measures for further opening during the starting ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia on April 10, and urged their implementation as early as possible.

Shanghai emphasizes that these 100 policies are action plans, not opinions on implementation. These local issues not involving central powers should be instituted on the day of their release, and relevant agencies should try to fulfill most of these by the third quarter.

Shanghai welcomed the Tesla gigafactory the same day that the new policies issued. With plans to make 500,000 all-electric vehicles each year, this factory is the largest foreign-funded manufacturing project ever in the municipality.

The financial services sector represented by banking, securities and insurance is a key part of China's opening. The policies also address this issue, with 32 involving greater outside access to the financial services sector.

Shanghai now is striving to approve 23 financial projects, with many already executed, said Li Jun, deputy director of the city's financial services office.

Like Tesla, several projects there also became the first example of implementation after China's new high-level opening-up measures were released. For instance, UK-based Willis Insurance Brokers is the first foreign insurance broker approved to extend its line of business in town. 

China will no longer restrict foreign shareholdings in life insurance companies after three years, and Shanghai will strive to cancel existing constraints within three years.

With opening-up projects for which China affords no favorable conditions to implement nationwide, but which are still matters of strategic need, Shanghai will strive to realize their landing locally to serve the entire nation. The city will act as a pressure-tester for opening-up measures that are still under national-level study and make up its deficiencies in some specific areas of openness.

"In our current 100 opening-up measures, 34 ones need further national support, which cover one third of the total. They embody Shanghai's encouragement of and determination in opening-up," said Zhou.

Partial opening-up projects could be implemented as early as this month, with eased restrictions on the conditions for foreign capital to form investment companies, said Shen Weihua, deputy director of Shanghai's business committee, adding that expanding the areas available for value-added telecom services in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, cancelling restrictions on the proportion of foreign technicians in overseas-funded construction engineering design companies, and further loosening or cancelling limits on investment in foreign-funded recruitment agencies and certification authorities are also in the cards.

"Along with the landing of the Tesla project -- which greatly affects the public -- the next half year will see certain increases in the use of foreign funds in Shanghai's industry," Shen predicted.

Considerable uncertainty still exists in global foreign direct investment overall, yet Shanghai's share has risen steadily this year, Shen noted.

The city brought in newly-added contractual foreign investment of USD18.1 billion in the first five months, up 12.7 percent, statistics show. This netted USD6.8 billion in foreign capital, up 4.5 percent.

Shanghai, it seems, has not only only lost none of its municipal magnetism as a foreign investment destination, but also appears poised to go from strength to strength.

Editor: Benedict Armour