(Yicai Global) Dec. 17 -- The China Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone yesterday unveiled its Global Operation Program, which will cultivate a group of leading companies in the fields of trade, investment, supply chain and research and development in the next 10 years. The first group in the program has 41 member companies .

GOP refers to companies with high-level headquarters spanning at least two continents and active in at least one of the areas of trade, investment, distribution and/or research and development.

The 41 companies signing with the FTZ at the kick-off ceremony yesterday comprise state-owned, private and foreign-funded enterprises. Of these, FFEs come from 11 countries and regions including the UK, Germany and Japan, and provide biomedicine, medical devices, intelligent manufacturing, integrated circuits, new materials and shipping services.

One such member is Panasonic Procurement, a comprehensive management company the Japanese electronics giant settled in Hong Kong in 2003. In recent years, the company has extended its business from China to the Asia-Pacific region. After joining the GOP, the firm will undertake some functions of its Osaka-based head office for the first time, and will further expand its import and export business in 27 countries and regions, said Satoshi Takada, its president.

Carl Zeiss IMT Shanghai, a unit of German optical giant ZEISS, is also a constituent of the program. In fiscal year 2019-2020, Carl Zeiss IMT Shanghai’s revenue vaulted as its China market surpassed those of the US and Germany to become ZEISS’s largest, said Maximilian Foerst, president of its Shanghai-based business, adding the German headquarters will move some new projects to China, including quality inspection of new energy vehicles and eye care.

At the forefront of China’s opening-up, Shanghai proposed a plan to cultivate trade operation centers early in 2006, and then launched the Asia-Pacific Regional Operation Program in 2012. As of now, nearly 300 headquarters of various types of companies have clustered in Shanghai’s FTZ, including 120 regional headquarters of multinational companies.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi