Shanghai has overtaken Singapore as the most attractive destination for financial services foreign direct investment (FDI), though the two financial hubs remain by far the largest in Asia-Pacific by that measure.
A total of $1.37bn flew into Shanghai’s financial centre between February 2018 and January 2019, compared with Singapore’s $1.18bn, according to estimates by greenfield investment monitor fDi Intelligence.
Mumbai and Beijing remain in third and fourth position, respectively, with $319.5m and $303.8m. Tokyo, which was previously in fifth place, has slipped down to 10th with $136.6m, a figure nearly one-third of its value a year earlier.
Lower inflows
Generally, besides Singapore, the financial centres that kept their place in Asia’s top 10 from the previous year all received lower FDI inflows. Since the newcomers’ inflows did not compensate for the difference, this resulted in an overall smaller total of $4.31bn, compared with the previous year’s $5.1bn.
The total number of jobs created by those top 10 hubs has also dropped, and at a faster rate than capital expenditure: 8095 new jobs were created in the year to the end of January 2019, compared with the previous year's 13,266.
Tokyo continues to lead the outward financial services FDI table, having directed a total of $1.3bn to foreign hubs. Seoul has displaced Singapore in second position, despite the latter’s significantly larger volume of outward flows from the previous 12 months. Beijing has climbed up one position to fourth while Chiba in Japan is now in fifth place, having previously not made the top 10.
