They identified transportation, bogus and inferior products, intellectual property and trademark protection, corruption and efficiency of administrative bureaux as the items that required the most immediate improvement. Another issue for the foreign investor has been costs. Though labour costs are low, rents for office space and housing in Shanghai can exceed those for much higher quality spaces in Hong Kong. The Shanghai workforce is large and skilled by Mainland standards. Productivity is generally higher in Shanghai than elsewhere on the Mainland, despite the fact that the capital stock is typically older than that found in other areas in the nation.
Wages are low by international standards.
Prevailing wages for a manufacturing worker in a foreign-invested company in Shanghai in 1995 were only on the order of 10 percent of those for a manufacturing worker in Hong Kong. In addition, Shanghai exhibits a phenomenon common on the Mainland, where skilled manual workers often are paid more than knowledge workers, making the latter a downright bargain. Shanghai is relatively advanced with respect to its educational system compared with the rest of the Mainland. Shanghai is the home of 52 colleges and universities. Institutions like Tongji, Fudan and Jiaotong are among China's top universities.