The mayor of Charlotte in the United States hopes to lure more investment from Chinese companies as he highlighted his city's growing strength in various sectors.

Many people may not envisage Charlotte, located in North Carolina, as a global city on par with New York City or Chicago but Mayor Anthony Foxx thinks it has several key advantages that Chinese companies may find very desirable.

"Whether it's financial services or industry or health care or automotive technology, Charlotte has a lot of strength that would be attractive to investment," Foxx said yesterday in Shanghai on the last stop of his 10-day trade mission in China.

Charlotte has the second-largest financial services center and the second-largest public hospital system in the US, according to Foxx.

There are now 19 Chinese firms that have operations in Charlotte and Foxx is confident this number will grow rapidly and triple or quadruple in the next couple of years.

He disclosed that Jetion Solar, a Chinese maker of solar cells, set up its North American headquarters in Charlotte in July because the city hosts a cluster of 250 energy firms.

"When we have the critical mass of energy companies in our city ... it creates a good climate for all of them because that is where customers are going to come to get what they need," Foxx said.

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