Qingpu at the integration forefront

After integration of the Yangtze River Delta became a national strategy last year, suburban Qingpu District is playing an increasingly important role in the process as the front gate of Shanghai.

On Wednesday, the district held an investment and marketing roadshow that attracted 225 leading companies including Vanke, China Eastern Airlines, and SF Express.

At the roadshow, 23 business investment projects adding up to 53.5 billion yuan (US$7.9 billion) were signed with the district, 14 of them involved listed companies and 13 were headquarters projects.

The roadshow offered 50 land parcels adding up to 1.7 square kilometers and 34 office buildings for companies eyeing Qingpu as their location in the Yangtze River Delta.

Most of the land and buildings was in four new industrial parks in the district — Qingpu Industrial Park, Dianshan Lake Newtown, West Hongqiao CBD and Shixi Software Information Park.

Qingpu Industrial Park, which has already attracted more than 2,000 companies from home and abroad, has signed strategic cooperation agreements with other industrial parks in the delta to share more resources.

Last year, Huawei and Net Ease chose to settle in Qingpu.

Zhao Huiqin, Party secretary of the district, said Qingpu will take its business environment to another level to better serve the economic development of the delta region.

“We will make the district the forefront of Shanghai’s global procurement,” said Zhao. “Qingpu will also become the center of collaborative science innovation in the delta region.”