Business leaders hail appeal of Shanghai

Business leaders of major multinationals lauded Shanghai's business environment and opening-up measures, casting a vote of confidence in China's economic growth during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025 this week in Davos, Switzerland.

They made the comments while attending a reception on Tuesday hosted by Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng, who has led a delegation to Davos and discussed a wide range of topics with many business leaders, including the further development of Shanghai's business environment.

In his speech at the "Shanghai Night" event, Gong said the city's attractiveness as a global investment hub, an innovation highland and a prime destination for entrepreneurship continues to grow.

Gong said Shanghai will accelerate the construction of its "five centers" — an international economic center, financial center, trade center, shipping center, and science and technology innovation center — in order to promote stable economic growth, foster new quality productive forces, deepen high-level reforms and opening-up, and create a world-class business environment.

Shanghai will continue to provide greater opportunities for global enterprises to invest and operate in the city, he added.

Severin Schwan, chairman of the board of directors of the Swiss healthcare company Roche Group, said: "I think Shanghai is really positioned to be one of the major innovation hubs in the life-science industry. I have no doubt. Because it has always been the door to the West. It has a tradition of being a host for the business world, for innovation, for technologies.

"So I'm very optimistic about the future of Shanghai," Schwan said.

Currently, Schwan also serves as the chair of the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai, which convenes leading multinational leaders every fall to give advice to the city. The initiative was set up in 1989 by then Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji.

Stefan Paul, CEO of global logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel International AG, who has been a member of the advisory council since 2023, said that he appreciates the strong links the city has with the business community.

"In all honesty, I've never experienced it in any other city in the world — how much engaged the mayor and his entire team are, to attract foreign investments and develop Shanghai into a multimodal hub," Paul said, adding, "It's really second to none from my perspective."

Paul said that Shanghai is essential for the company's sea freight service, which opened its Shanghai office in 1986 and was among the first foreign logistics companies to come to do business in China after the nation adopted the reform and opening-up policy.

Last year, Shanghai Port became the world's first to have handled 50 million 20-foot equivalent unit containers in annual throughput.

Saying that the milestone was "very impressive", Paul added, "We support open trade and we support as well our customers moving their cargo from Asia, from China, to the rest of the world and vice versa."

Fabrice Megarbane, chief global growth officer of French cosmetics company L'Oreal Group, who spent many years working in Shanghai, praised the innovation and openness of the city, which has launched many measures to implement China's opening-up policies that "allow companies to accelerate investment and better build their business ecosystem".

Megarbane highlighted the importance of innovation in the beauty industry, adding that the high-quality development of China has had a positive impact on the industry.

"We've been launching a 'Big Bang' program to actually work with startups to work out innovative solutions," he said. "Innovation is the name of the game, and Shanghai is the flagship of this innovation in China. So we are very much determined to continue our investment and to grow in the market."

"China has also become a very big market, so the contribution of growth of this market to the overall beauty market worldwide would be significant. This is why the growth story of China is still ahead," he said.