Hongqiao Central Business District had attracted 289 enterprise headquarters of all kinds by December 2019, including 16 enterprises with investment by Fortune 500 companies, 27 regional headquarters of foreign-funded enterprises, 121 functional or regional headquarters of domestic and foreign listed companies, as well as 125 headquarters of industry leaders, according to data released by Shanghai Hongqiao CBD management committee on Dec 4.

Shanghai municipal Party committee and government published a plan for building Hongqiao into an international open hub in mid-November. The plan pointed out that Hongqiao CBD should focus on the headquarters economy, exhibition economy, platform economy and digital economy, building an international open hub, an international CBD and an international new trade platform.

By virtue of China International Import Expo and Yangtze River Delta (YRD) integration, the agglomeration of a headquarters economy in Hongqiao has been accelerated. Most of the enterprise headquarters that have settled in Hongqiao are manufacturing enterprises, boasting production bases in YRD. Hongqiao's regional and traffic advantages can reduce enterprises' management costs. In addition to foreign corporations, Hongqiao is also the first choice for those domestic manufacturing companies intending to exploit overseas markets.

The Fortune 500 company Bosch established its regional headquarters in Hongqiao in 2008, covering more than 70,000 square meters. It has seen Hongqiao develop from a wasteland to a gathering place of transnational enterprises.

A headquarters located in Hongqiao is like the brain of a company and the production bases distributed in YRD are like the body. Hongqiao CBD has strong capacities to radiate YRD. After YRD integration forms, staff turnover will be less disruptive and the resource agglomeration effect will be stronger. This will be of great benefit to enterprises, according to Chen Yudong, CEO of Bosch China Investment.

With regard to building Hongqiao as an international open hub, Chen said that internationalization can promote the turnover of talents and cargo, which is important for enterprises, especially foreign-funded ones. Enhancing Hongqiao's overseas talents employment services can help solve the current problems foreign enterprises are facing.