Pudong New Area, a vibrant economic hub in Shanghai, has once again taken the lead in China's efforts to open up to the outside world, this time in the realm of value-added telecom services. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China recently approved a pilot program allowing 13 foreign enterprises, including three in Pudong, to operate value-added telecom services, such as providing internet access and information services.

Pudong, a vibrant economic hub in Shanghai, is a leader in China's opening-up initiatives. [Photo/WeChat ID: pdnews]

By February 2025, China had over 2,400 foreign-invested telecom enterprises, up 30 percent year-on-year. Among the 13 approved enterprises, several are subsidiaries of well-known multinational corporations and are poised to offer more diversified telecom services and products to Chinese consumers. The new pilot program is expected to stimulate market vitality, enhance service quality, and meet the growing digital lifestyle demands of the people.

Pudong's approved enterprises include subsidiaries set up by Siemens, Bank of China, HSBC, and Liepin, focusing on emerging fields like digital healthcare, financial technology, and new human resource services.

Last year, MIIT announced a pilot program in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan, and Shenzhen, lifting foreign ownership restrictions on services like internet data centers (IDC), content delivery networks (CDN), and internet service providers (ISP). Pudong began opening up its telecoms industry in 2014 and is currently home to 1,967 licensed value-added telecom enterprises (427 foreign-owned), putting it in an ideal position to deepen such reforms.

The pilot policy has received an enthusiastic response from foreign enterprises, with many signing agreements during a promotional event last October. Shanghai, as a pilot region, has seen its telecom market's foreign investment grow at an average annual rate of 15 percent over the past three years. With more enterprises actively pursuing pilot applications, Pudong is poised to attract even more projects in the future.