WITH its complete industrial chain, favorable business environment and efficient government services, Shenzhen has been luring investment from State-owned, private and foreign firms.

Over the past week, Shenzhen welcomed top brasses from China Export & Credit Insurance Corp. (Sinosure), Fosun International Ltd. and Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A from Italy.

These top execs came to the southern China city to seek business opportunities brought with Shenzhen’s market-oriented, rule-of-law and internationalized business environment.

Since the beginning of the year, Shenzhen has seen intensive visits by many well-known firms, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Shenzhen, a city famous for its pioneering spirit in trying out new things, has become one of the preferred choices for State-owned firms to test their new products or services.

According to official statistics, over 20 State-owned firms have come to Shenzhen for cooperation talks since the beginning of the year, including CITIC Group, China Mobile, China COSCO Shipping Group and China National Pharmaceutical Group, covering fields such as manufacturing, finance, medicine and shipping. Many of these firms have already signed strategic cooperation agreements with the city.

In March, Liu Jingzhen, chairman of China National Pharmaceutical, visited Shenzhen and announced intentions to boost investment in the city. A month later, China National Pharmaceutical signed an agreement with Shenzhen’s city government to strengthen cooperation in high-end medical devices, innovative drugs and pharmaceutical commerce.

Last week, Sinosure also inked a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shenzhen city government. Song Shuguang, Sinosure chairman, said that Sinosure will introduce more innovative products and business models for trial in Shenzhen and provide financial support for Shenzhen firms to expand their exports.

As one of the cities in China with the most developed private economy and the largest number of private firms, Shenzhen is the home to a long list of renowned private firms such as Huawei, Tencent, BYD, DJI and Kingdee.

The city has always centered around supporting the high-quality development of the private economy by rolling out supportive policies, vigorously promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and facilitating firms’ upgrading and transformation.

Shenzhen’s favorable business environment has proved to be a strong magnet for the private sector.

This year, Shenzhen-based private firms, led by electric car juggernaut BYD, have continuously increased investment and expanded production capacity. Meanwhile, leading domestic private firms such as Alibaba, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) and Fosun International have thronged to the city with plans to boost investment and seek new business opportunities.

On July 27, Pingshan signed an agreement with Fosun Pharmaceutical to develop and promote the city’s biopharmaceutical, high-end medical device and health care industries. Just four days later, Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International, came to Shenzhen for further cooperation talks.

Foreign companies are also optimistic about Shenzhen’s development prospects and are speeding up their foray into the city, which is also China’s manufacturing and technology hub.

On July 29, U.S. chip conglomerate Intel Corp. set up a new innovation center in Shenzhen as the company is expanding its cooperation with Chinese partners and is tapping into potentials of the vast Chinese market.

The Intel Greater Bay Area Innovation Center in Nanshan will focus on artificial intelligence, chip application development, edge computing, digital development and other cutting-edge fields.

“The development of high-tech industries and the support for innovation in Shenzhen have brought tremendous development opportunities to firms,” Wang Rui, senior vice president of Intel and chair of Intel China, said.

Sustaining confidence in Shenzhen’s opportunities and prospects is a key reason many foreign firms invest in Shenzhen.

“Shenzhen is a hub of innovation and research and development, with an excellent business environment and a world-class economic and trade network. The city has tremendous growth potentials and we will continue to pay attention to development opportunities in Shenzhen,” Gao Yong, vice president of Bayer China, said at an economic forum in Shenzhen in March. (Yang Yunfei)