Shanghai is said by many to be the driving force behind China’s rampant economy. One look at the skyline of Pudong, its modern financial district with a forest of cranes and shiny new offices thrusting ever-skyward, and it isn’t hard to understand why. Shanghai’s economy has always been heavily based on manufacturing, with everything from cars and ships to laptops made in the city and the Yangtze delta. The region still produces 20% of China’s output, but Shanghai’s service sector – notably financial services – is now driving much of its growth. Foreign investment is key to the city’s phenomenal rise. In the first quarter of 2007 alone, Shanghai approved the establishment of 909 foreign-funded projects and by the end of the year the city had attracted US$14.87 billion in contracted foreign investment, up by 2.03% from 2006.
Almost 600 multinationals have set up regional headquarters in Shanghai as the city has wooed the world's corporate investors - 30 were authorised in 2007 in Pudong, along with 15 investment companies.

Meanwhile, joint-venture arrangements between western firms and local counterparts have increased exponentially. Shanghai's GDP almost doubled between 2000 and 2005, when the total reached ¥915 billion, more than 50% of which was attributed to the service sector. The city's average per capita GDP stood at ¥62,185 in 2007. 

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