More than 320 senior managers and human resources executives from 200 Japanese companies gathered at a conference held by China International Intellectech Co Ltd (CIIC) in Shanghai on Friday to discuss their future development in the municipality and beyond.

A booklet that brought together 58 Japanese business managers to share valuable management experience, circling human resources, was released at the event. The booklet was initiated by a club of Japanese enterprises organized by CIIC, a State-owned enterprise focusing on international cooperation.

In his remarks delivered at the conference, Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that they looked forward to more Japanese companies investing in Shanghai, participating in the city's expanded opening-up while developing and prospering together with the city.

"Shanghai has updated and launched its 8.0 version of the action plan for optimizing the city's business environment. It is hoped that Japanese enterprises will continue to make suggestions for optimizing Shanghai's business environment," said Zhu.

He also said that the negative list for China's manufacturing access has been cleared, and Shanghai will further increase its opening-up in the fields of medical care, value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and other service industries.

Multiple company executives expressed expectations for deepened development in the China market.

"East China, with Shanghai as the center, has a large number of talent across all walks of life and at different levels required for the development of foreign-funded enterprises. Good government policies and excellent talent are the biggest advantages of the Yangtze River Delta region in attracting Japanese investment," said Toru Yamamoto, executive officer of Proterial Ltd and chairman and general manager of Proterial (China) Ltd.

Shan Weimin, director and general manager of CIIC, said that since its establishment 12 years ago, the club of Japanese enterprises organized by CIIC has provided a full range of companionship services for more than 3,500 Japanese businesses and more than 10,000 Japanese individuals working in China.

In the future, CIIC will continue to give full play to its service advantages of a national network to help Japanese enterprises in China localize their operations and become a human resources partner that understands Japanese enterprises better, he said.

According to the latest survey report released by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China in February, the forecasts for China's economic prosperity in 2025 by Japanese businesses operating in the country are showing an improving trend. Roughly 58 percent of the member companies said they would "increase" or "maintain" their investments this year.