These places have been put together, in order to grab the "corporate headquarters" in the Yangtze River Delta

Recently, Hefei City in Anhui Province issued the "Several Policies to Support the Development of Headquarters Economy in Hefei City", which introduced 10 high-value policy measures with real gold and silver to accelerate the development of headquarters economy.

Attracting various corporate headquarters to settle in is one of the new directions for internal competition in various regions of the Yangtze River Delta.

So, what is the current pattern of headquarters economy in the Yangtze River Delta?

Private enterprise headquarters in Zhejiang takes the lead

From the list of China's top 500 private enterprises and the world's top 500 enterprises, the headquarters economy of the Yangtze River Delta is leading the country.

Let's take a look at the quantity first.

In the past five years, the number of private enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region entering the "Top 500 Private Enterprises in China" has fluctuated and increased. Compared to 2019, there were 30 more enterprises in 2022, reaching 222, accounting for 44.4% of the total.

Among them, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have consistently dominated the list, ranking first and second with 108 and 89 enterprises respectively in 2022, opening a huge gap with Shandong, which ranks third.

The number of private enterprises shortlisted in Shanghai and Anhui is relatively stable, maintaining the seventh and fifteenth positions in the country, respectively.

In terms of quality, the revenue of the top 500 private enterprises in three provinces and one city reached 16241.5 billion yuan, accounting for 40.8% of the total revenue of the top 500.

The number of companies entering the Fortune Global 500 is also relatively high. In 2023, 26 companies from the Yangtze River Delta entered the "Fortune Global 500" list, accounting for 18.3% of China's total. Among them, Shanghai has the largest number, reaching 12.

However, in terms of total assets, private enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta still have further room for growth. Although there are not many companies in Beijing and Guangdong that have been shortlisted for the top 500 private enterprises in China, their scale is even larger. The total assets of the 24 shortlisted companies in Beijing reached 11641.6 billion yuan, accounting for 25.14%, even higher than the situation of 108 companies in Zhejiang Province.

Manufacturing is the mainstream

From the perspective of enterprise types, the headquarters economy of the Yangtze River Delta is concentrated in the secondary industry, especially in traditional manufacturing and processing industries.

Among the 222 parent triangle enterprises shortlisted for the "Top 500 Private Enterprises in China", the top five industries with the highest number of enterprises belong to traditional manufacturing, including black metal smelting and rolling processing industry, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, and chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry.

This is similar to the entry of the Yangtze River Delta into the Fortune Global 500 companies. The most common products are also metal processing products, such as China Baowu Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., which has the highest revenue and ranks 44th in the world. Next are chemical product related companies, such as Zhejiang Hengyi Group Co., Ltd., which focus on the production of petrochemical and chemical fiber raw materials.

Of course, in private enterprises, the proportion of high-tech manufacturing is also not low, accounting for 8.6%. Electronic and communication equipment manufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing are representatives, with 12 and 5 enterprises respectively.

From the perspective of revenue, the Internet based information service industry should not be underestimated. Alibaba Limited's revenue in 2022 exceeded 800 billion yuan, making it the most profitable private enterprise in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Taking a closer look at the types of private enterprises, the headquarters economy of the three provinces and one city has their own emphasis.

Shanghai is mainly a comprehensive enterprise, with most enterprises focusing on technology and technology, covering multiple fields such as production, service, and consumption. For example, Shanghai Fosun International Co., Ltd. covers multiple fields such as medicine and health, cultural tourism, investment insurance, etc; Anhui mainly focuses on metal smelting industry; There are various types of private enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, with the most abundant being the black metal smelting and rolling processing industry in Jiangsu province. At the same time, the wholesale service industry is strong, while the housing construction industry is in Zhejiang province.

Shanghai has the most multinational enterprise headquarters

In addition to domestic enterprises, attracting multinational enterprise headquarters to settle in is also an important component of the headquarters economy.

According to statistics, the economic strength of Shanghai's multinational enterprise headquarters is leading the country, with not only a large number of regional headquarters, but also a total of 848 as of 2022, distributed in key industries such as biomedicine, intelligent manufacturing, and enterprises.

Meanwhile, multinational corporations have a strong contribution to the economy. In 2021, the number of regional headquarters of multinational corporations in Shanghai accounted for 1.1% of the total number of foreign-funded enterprises, but contributed 18.2% of the city's foreign-funded enterprise tax revenue.

Moreover, the overall rootedness of multinational enterprise headquarters is good, with a relatively long settlement time in Shanghai, with an average continuous operation period of about 16 years, and over 40% of enterprises operating continuously for more than 20 years.

According to data released by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Commerce, the number of regional headquarters of multinational corporations in Jiangsu Province has been increasing year by year in recent years. In 2019 before the epidemic, the peak number of new headquarters reached 23, an increase of 3.6 times compared to 2015.

Although Anhui and Zhejiang have not yet released relevant data, both have increased their efforts to attract functional institutions such as multinational company headquarters and foreign R&D centers.

For example, in May of this year, Zhejiang Province issued the "Notice of the General Office of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province on Printing and Distributing Several Measures to Intensify the Attraction and Utilization of Foreign Investment", which provides a subsidy of 3% of the actual amount of foreign investment used in the current year to multinational corporations and Fortune 500 enterprise headquarters that meet the conditions within the policy validity period, with a cumulative maximum of 50 million yuan.

Attracting corporate headquarters to settle in through reward funds is a very common way. However, it is worth noting that China applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement in September 2021, which has a "three zero" rule, namely zero tariffs, zero barriers, and zero subsidies.

Among them, "zero subsidy" not only involves free and open borders, but also fair and open domestic regulations, which means that member countries need to maintain consistency in domestic policies and avoid discrimination or improper subsidies for certain enterprises or industries.

Therefore, while attracting enterprises through subsidies, rewards, and other means, it is necessary to pay attention to industry fairness and trade liberalization in various regions.