THE number of market entities registered in Shenzhen exceeded 3.8 million by the end of July, up 4% year on year, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

The number of Shenzhen’s market entities has grown from less than 1 million to around 3.835 million within a decade. The total amount of Shenzhen’s market entities has ranked first among big and medium-sized cities in China for many years.

The rapid growth of market entities is empowered by innovation. The city government’s work report in 2021 not only emphasized the improvement of innovation capability, but also collaboration in the tech industry.

Shenzhen is now home to over 3,100 innovation platforms of different categories, the report said.

Liu Chenli, director of the Institute of Synthetic Biology of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, piloted a construction program in Guangming Science City to allow research institutes and companies to work in the same building. The design can speed up the incubation and development of scientific and technological companies.

Shenzhen this year will add 500,000 market entities, 500 national high-tech companies and 100 national “little giant” companies, as per the city’s government work report.

Shenzhen also took a lead in the country to step up business environment reform and was named as the pilot city for business environment innovation.

In face of the pandemic, Shenzhen rolled out a slew of measures to support market entities.

Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) E-mobility officially inaugurated its Shenzhen office in Nanshan on Aug. 9.

“Shenzhen’s environment and quality resources offered excellent conditions for our business development. We are confident in China’s market and will expand our investment in Shenzhen and China,” said Frank Mühlon, chief executive officer of ABB E-mobility Business.

Over 100,000 foreign-invested companies have been set up in Shenzhen. The city has absorbed over US$300 billion in foreign investment contracts. Nearly 300 of the world’s top 500 companies have invested in Shenzhen.

In 2021, the total foreign trade import and export volume in Shenzhen exceeded 3.5 trillion yuan (US$520 billion). The city’s total export volume ranked first among mainland cities for 29 consecutive years, according to the report.

In addition, a group of companies including China Electronics Corporation and ZTE have based their headquarters in Shenzhen. The headquarters economy has also served as an important engine for Shenzhen’s high-quality development and internationalization. (Wang Jingli)