BY Li Shuzheng from CNS
Over the past five years, Shanghai’s Pudong New District has solidified its role as a national pilot zone for socialist modernization, leading the way in higher-level reform and opening up.
The district now serves as a key supporter for Chinese companies expanding abroad and a central node in global innovation networks.
“Without the strong support from the Pudong enterprise global expansion service center, our Thailand factory project would not have proceeded so smoothly,” said Wu Jingqi, Finance Director of Shanghai Yamasaki Circuit Board Co., Ltd.
Yamasaki, the nationally recognized specialized SME, faced hurdles with its investment in the Thai facility. Using the center’s assistance, it completed a first-phase investment of 95 million yuan (about 13 million U.S. dollars) and is preparing a second-phase injection of 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars).
This case reflects Pudong’s institutional innovation in serving internationalizing companies.
Launched in March 2025, the Pudong Enterprise Global Expansion Service Center is China’s first integrated platform dedicated to supporting corporate overseas expansion under a counsellor model.
General Manager Wang Yue said the center has built a network of 11 council units and over 90 partners worldwide, with more than 270 service sites across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.
The platform offers one-stop services from market research and business matchmaking to project implementation and risk management.
Beyond this structural support, Pudong is building a two-way industrial ecosystem that both sends firms abroad and attracts global players.
This synergy is evident in the growth of Zhengchuang Group. As an industrial partner for leading firms like Miniso, it has built a new retail supply chain cluster integrating manufacturing, research and development, and distribution.
Through collaboration with East Asia Asset Management, it has extended its network to Southeast Asia.
In innovation, the addition of global giants like Bayer and Pfizer in 2025 has expanded the Pudong Open Innovation Center (GOI) to over 100 members.
Since its 2021 launch, GOI has empowered more than 6,000 enterprises.
At the Bayer Co. Lab platform in Zhangjiang, labs are bustling with activity. The platform has attracted Chinese startups like Rigen and Yijielike.
“The quality and speed of biopharmaceutical innovation in China are remarkable. It has become an indispensable force in global drug R&D,” said Dominik Ruettinger, Senior Vice President of Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Division.
He noted Pudong is not just a production base, but a source of innovation and global connection.
This two-way empowerment is spreading across the district. Over the past five years, the district has made a series of institutional breakthroughs in key sectors—from establishing the country’s first one-stop platform supporting corporate overseas expansion to forming the GOI global innovation network; from helping specialized SMEs go global to deepening the presence of multinational corporations; and from building worldwide new retail supply chains to advancing biomedical collaboration.
Pudong has shifted from factor-based opening to institutional and ecosystem-driven growth.
As local firms bring the Pudong advantage worldwide and imported innovations flourish, the district continues to pioneer new chapters in reform and opening up.
