China: Foreign firms accelerate research and development investment in China.

Storyline Foreign firms accelerate research and development investment in China More and more foreign firms are building R&D and design centers in China taking advantage of the country's tech, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. Data from the country's Ministry of Commerce shows that in Q1 this year, actual foreign investment in high-tech services surged by more than 125 percent compared to last year with research and development and design services leading that increase. The CEO of a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company praised Shanghai as an incubator city with all the necessary parts to turn ideas into reality. Christophe Bourdon, CEO, LEO Pharma: "I think what I like, what I've seen this week, is an ecosystem where we can take it to the next level. The incubator in Shanghai is remarkable. You have all the ingredients -- you have a lot of students, you have an ecosystem where you can do basic research, where you can do pre-clinical research, where you can do clinical research, and you have a digital infrastructure that is helping to move fast. So, I'm very confident that China will continue to accelerate. And the key focus for me is what's going to be LEO's focus in that journey." As of March, Shanghai had 647 foreign-invested R&D centers, 15 added this year. Beijing meanwhile has 332 foreign-invested R&D centers, with 55 new centers added this year. A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that 42 percent of multinational corporations surveyed plan to invest in China for their R&D needs in the next two years. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]