Port Functions

　 The city has witnessed constant expansion of the port functions. In 2006, US$428.754 worth of commodities passed through the city ports, up 22.3% over the previous year. Of the total, imported commodities increased 17.3% to US$162.189 billion and exported commodities grew by25.5% to US$266.565 billion. Meanwhile, the foreign trade maintained fast growth, totaling US$227.489 billion, up 22.1% over the previous year. Of the total, import was worth US$113.916, up 19.1%, and export US$113.573, up 25.2%, including US$75.935 from overseas-funded enterprises, up 23.3%.

Structure of Export Products

　 The city has further improved its structure of export products, lifting the common trade export above the processing trade export. In 2006, the common trade export hit 43.304 billion US dollars, up 27.7%, 4.8 percentage points more than the processing trade. The electromechanical products dominated the total export. In the year, export of local electromechanical products hit 75.415 billion US dollars, accounting for 66.4% of the total export. The city also fostered its policy of diversifying its export markets. The export to other Asian areas totaled 46.915 billion US dollars, up 22.2%; to Europe 27.81 billion US dollars, up 28.6%; to North America 30.541 billion US dollars, up 23.6%, and the growth of export to Latin America and Oceania exceeded 30%.

Utilization of Overseas Capital

　 In 2006, Shanghai approved a total of 4,061 projects of direct overseas investment. The contracted investment totaled 14.574 billion US dollars, and the realized fund hit 7.107 billion US dollars. The service sector continued to lead other sectors in attracting overseas fund. In the year, overseas funds of 4.416 billion US dollars were pumped into the sector, up 26.2% over 2005. The secondary industries received 2.683 billion US dollars of overseas fund, down 19.7%. By the end of 2006, the city had accumulatively signed 44,500 projects of direct overseas investment from 127 countries and regions. Their contracted investment totaled 114.535 billion US dollars, of which 66.763 billion US dollars had already been pumped in. By the end of 2006, Shanghai had attracted 154 regional headquarters of multinational companies, 150 investment firms and 196 overseas-funded research and development centers.

Overseas-Funded Ventures

　　 The overseas-funded enterprises in Shanghai reported steadily increasing economic returns. In 2006, these enterprises reported a total sales or operational income of 1561.876 billion yuan, up 11.8% from the previous year. Their profits toped 83.719 billion yuan, up 25.4%. They paid a total tax of 45.536 billion yuan, up 17%. Their foreign exchange earnings hit 90.723 billion US dollars, up 11%.

Overseas-Invested Financial Institutions

　 The speed of overseas-invested financial institutions investing in Shanghai picked up. By the end of 2006, the city had 105 operating overseas-funded financial institutions. Of them, 43 were authorized to deal in Chinese currency business within the year. Also, the first 9 overseas-funded banks were authorized to be established in Shanghai. By the end of the year, the deposits balance of these overseas-funded financial institutions stood at 153.023 billion yuan, and the loan balance 263.499 billion yuan. By the year end, the invested capital (or operational fund) of the operational overseas-funded financial institutions in the city totaled 5.167 billion US dollars.

Sister Cities

　 In 2006, Shanghai established sister-city relationship with Java province, Indonesia, and set up ties with London, United Kingdom. By the end of the year, the city had established sister-city ties and long-term friendly exchange programs with 68 cities (provinces, states and regions) in 51 countries around the world. Also in 2006, Venezuela, Luxemburg, Uzbek, and Papua New Guinea set up their consulates general in Shanghai, bringing the total number of such diplomatic offices in the city to 60.

Overseas News Organizations

　 During the past few years, a growing number of overseas news organizations have set up resident offices in the city given the rising position of Shanghai in the world. In 2006, 18 foreign news outlets set up their offices in Shanghai. By the end of last year, 101 news organizations from 21 countries had set up branches in the city, involving 110 resident journalists. These countries included Finland, Japan, UK, Russia, USA, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, South Korea, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Australia, Malaysia, Norway, Denmark and Canada. In the year, 17 media outlets from 11 countries such as Malaysia and Norway set their branches in Shanghai.