(Yicai Global) June 20 -- Shanghai has welcomed 10 more institutions, including professional services companies Boston Consulting Group and Accenture, to join its global investing program.

Some of the other new participants in the Shanghai Global Investment Partners program include drug research provider Iqvia, Canadian fuel cell product developer Ballard Power Systems, international telecoms organization GSMA, and Munich-based consultancy Roland Berger, the eastern city's Mayor Gong Zheng announced recently.

Moreover, the group of 10 has Chicago-headquartered real estate service provider Jones Lang LaSalle, as well as venture capital firms Oaktree Capital Management, GSR Ventures, and China Renaissance Capital Investment.

Shanghai kicked off the scheme in April 2021 to help leading companies and individuals in various sectors facilitate investing in the city in order to lure talent and high-quality resources from around the world to gather in the economic hub.

Accenture has always regarded China as its key strategic market and will continue to contribute its edge-cutting insights, pioneering concepts, as well as digital innovation services to the city's development, said Gianfranco Casati, chief executive of growth markets. The Dublin-based consultancy has been operating in China for 35 years, and its China headquarters is located in Shanghai.

Last year, some six institutions and four individuals were chosen to join the program. Those included global semiconductor industry association SEMI, professional services provider PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as Sequoia China's Founding Managing Partner Neil Shen and Hillhouse Capital Group's founder Zhang Lei.

The participants in the first round managed to lure some 111 high-quality projects to settle in Shanghai or to boost their investments, with the total tally exceeding CNY22 billion (USD3.3 billion), the government revealed.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi