The policy is the continuation of a successful effort by local authorities to lure foreign multinationals to set their regional Asia and China headquarters in Shanghai, with 347 multinational companies relocating to Shanghai in the wake of favorable policies last year.
The Shanghai Daily reports:
"The Shanghai Commission of Commerce is working with the city's exit and entry administration to allow foreign employees of multinational corporations' regional headquarters to have longer visa validity," Chen Xianjin, the commission's vice chairman, said yesterday.Currently, most foreign nationals in Shanghai must reapply for visas on a yearly basis, with exceptions only made occasionally for higher-ups or awesome guanxi-havers (maybe).
However, it won't be all concession-era neo-colonialist easy living in Shanghai. A new policy requiring expat workers and their employees to pay the same premiums for social welfare that locals do is currently being hashed out, while there are doubts as to whether expats will actually enjoy any of the services the new taxes will pay for:
"I can fully understand the policy but I feel doubt whether our foreign workers in Shanghai can enjoy the social insurance in the end," said Ding Hui, managing director of Inter IKEA Centre Group in China.Of course, any complaints will invariably be answered with "If you don't like it, go home, you're a guest of this country, etc., etc.", and so on.
http://shanghaiist.com/2012/02/10/jubilation_and_relief_shanghai_to_e.php
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