The city of Shanghai city in East China welcomed 129 new corporate headquarters in 2020, including 48 trading company headquarters and 81 private company headquarters, according to a recent statement made by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

Including the latest additions, Shanghai is home to a total of 185 trading company headquarters and there were 274 private company headquarters based there.

Local officials said that since the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Shanghai has been actively encouraging businesses with the ability to allocate international and domestic resources to set up their trading headquarters in the metropolis.

They said these have become a new driving force for the construction of the Shanghai International Trade Center and have created new opportunities for the city's internal and external opening-up.

The 48 trading company headquarters that were established last year are in 13 districts. They are mostly located in the central urban area – including the Pudong New Area – and 34 of them are domestic wholesale and retail enterprises.

Among the 81 private company headquarters, businesses engaged in industries related to the new online economy accounted for 30 percent of the total, including a number of well-known online platform enterprises such as Ximalaya FM, Tuhu and Trueland.