Shanghai enjoys a head start in its 5-year plan projects

The Shanghai Commission of the Communist Party of China said Shanghai has made a good start for the 14th Five Year (2021-25) period by well coordinating pandemic prevention with economic and social development and implementing important national strategies.

The remarks were made by Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang at the 12th plenary session of the 11th Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party of China on Tuesday.

Li said this year, Shanghai focused on five key missions, including comprehensively improving the city's soft power, promoting urban digital transformation and pandemic prevention and control.

The city has been unswervingly deepening reform and opening up, promoting high-quality economic development, boosting the development of socialist democracy, implementing people's democracy throughout all decision processes, promoting urban governance capability, improving quality of people's lives, and protecting and improving the ecological environment, Li said on behalf of the standing committee of the CPC Shanghai Committee.

High-quality economic development

Specifically, Li said Shanghai has spared no effort to promote high-quality economic development and establish a new development pattern to fight against the uncertainties of the external environment.

In the first three quarters, the city's regional gross domestic product grew by 9.8 percent year on year, keeping pace with the national growth rate.

Local general public budget revenue soared 15.4 percent; total industrial output value above the scale rose 13.3 percent; fixed asset investment grew by 9.4 percent, industrial investment was up 8.1 percent; and paid-in foreign capital saw an increase of 15 percent.

The number of regional headquarters of multinational companies reached 823, while that of foreign R&D centers was 503.

The achievements can be partly attributed to Shanghai's hard work in enhancing the core functions of the city.

To strengthen the function of global resource allocation, it issued new measures on accelerating the construction of a global asset management center, built an offshore trade financial service system, and promoted the pilot implementation of digital yuan.

The city also approved the opening of a number of foreign-funded financial institutions such as BlackRock Funds and DBS Securities, and gave the green light to the establishment of public funds wholly owned by foreign companies such as Fidelity International and Neuberger Berman.

The number of licensed financial institutions has increased to 1,696, and the fundraising volume of the securities market, spot gold trading volume, and crude oil futures market have ranked among the top three in the world.

Meanwhile, the city has vigorously cultivated new driving forces for economic growth, with importance attached to innovation, services, openness, headquarters and hubs.

Shanghai's "four brands" of services, manufacturing, shopping and culture, which has been an emphasis of the city over the past few years, is further developing with the launch of a new round of three-year plans.

Boosted by the successful second Double Five Shopping Festival, the city this year has newly lured 938 companies to set up their "first stores" here.

As for suburban areas, the city has set up a policy system on new key area construction planning, with more supportive policies on talents and land.

It has basically completed the design of 23 key areas in the five "new cities" in Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian and Nanhui, with the launch of 255 key programs and the construction of 10 demonstration zones.

Shanghai has also endeavored to play a better role in serving the national development and reform and opening up against the backdrop of economic globalization.

In line with the state's emphasis on the high-level opening-up of Pudong New Area, the city has made a comprehensive action plan on building Pudong as a pioneer modern area, formulating 92 specific measures and arranged 280 detailed tasks.

The city also pushed forward the implementation of its strategic tasks, including building the Lingang New Area of pilot free trade zone, giving full play to the SSE STAR Market, promoting integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, and helping organize the China International Import Expo.

The Lingang New Area, by the end of October, has become home to 22,500 new enterprises and has seen 133 industrial new projects signed involving a total investment of 189.5 billion yuan.

Total industrial output in the area reached 216.3 billion yuan, up 77.3 percent, while FAI was up 65.3 percent to top 73.9 billion yuan.

The SSE STAR Market, meanwhile, had seen a total of 361 companies listed on the board as of November 26, with an overall market value hitting 5.7 trillion yuan.

Of note, Shanghai's local listed sci-tech companies ranked first in the country in terms of both financing amount and total market value.

The fourth CIIE was also a hit this year, with the number of countries or regions and that of exhibiting companies both exceeding those in the previous edition.

A large number of intended deals were reached during the expo, with a total value of US$70.72 billion. The number of "6 + 365 days" trading service platforms, which are committed to helping turn CIIE exhibits to commodities, was expanded to 60, leading to imports of 225.2 billion yuan in total.

Steadily improved life quality

Shanghai has been steadily improving the quality of people's lives with 16 public welfare programs, such as child nursing, senior care, parking administration and installation of elevators for old buildings.

By now, 95 percent of the towns and subdistricts in Shanghai are equipped with affordable kindergartens while public kindergartens now host 70 percent of preschool children.

All primary and middle schools have extended after-school services to 6pm to serve families with difficulty in picking up their children earlier.

Measures have been taken to ease excessive burdens on students from both schools and after-school tutoring.

By the end of October, 727,000 square meters of old neighborhoods have been renovated to boost the living conditions of residents.

About 590,000 new jobs have been added this year in Shanghai, with its employment rates of university graduates topping other places in the country. Vocational training is carried out citywide and preparations for the 46th WorldSkills Competition are well underway.

More quality medical resources have been introduced to the city, with two national medical centers and a batch of regional medical centers built. Online hospitals are being developed with 76 hospitals now providing online medical services.

Urban governance is becoming intelligent in Shanghai with its one-stop public service and governance networks.

The digital networks have been playing a great role in pandemic control, flood prevention and management of huge passenger flows.

Shanghai has kicked off the second round of its three-year action in refined management to beautify streets, communities and villages.

By the end of October, 14,271 sites of illegal structures, covering 2.73 million square meters in total, have been dismantled.

Facilities in waterfront spaces along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek have been developed to benefit citizens.

A total of 140 kilometers of overhead wires have been moved underground to make the city skyline more beautiful, and congestion problems on 110 roads have been solved.

With support from intelligence technologies, Shanghai has become increasingly safe. The number of criminal cases and deaths caused by traffic accidents in the past 10 months declined by 5.6 percent and 5 percent respectively from the same period last year.

Better ecological environment

Shanghai has launched the eighth round of the three-year action plan to fight pollution and protect the environment.

In the past 10 months, the concentration of particulate matter with a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometers was 25 micrograms per cubic meter, a 16.7 percent decrease from the same period last year.

A total of 120 new parks, 1,000 hectares of Greenland and 212 kilometers of greenways have been built, while 50,000 mu of forests have been added in the city.

Cowfish has returned to the Yangtze Estuary as the nation implements the 10-year fishing ban in the Yangtze River.

A garbage-sorting system has been established in Shanghai with 95 percent of waste in the city well sorted, and 40 percent recycled.

Green economy is promoted in the city, with carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals set up and energy consumption in key industries reduced.

Online trading has been launched in the national carbon market in Shanghai, with the cumulative trading volume of various types of carbon has grown beyond 33 million tons.

Future work

Li said the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC has provided guidance for Shanghai's future work.

He said Shanghai should boldly take up missions bestowed by the CPC central committee to serve the national reform and development, upholding people-oriented thoughts to deepen reform and opening up, improve urban governance capability, solve problems shared by megacities around the world, and speed up the construction of a socialist modern metropolis of global influence.

He added that Party members in Shanghai should draw wisdom and strength from the CPC's 100-year history in solving problems and serving the people.

He said Shanghai should never slack in prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, but stay on high alert and implement all prevention and control measures strictly and carefully to effectively control risks brought by population liquidity and concentration.

He also emphasized the need to further improve and optimize the city's contingency plans, enhance the capacity for rapid and precise response, better guide the public to enhance self-discipline, and improve the city's resilience against the epidemic.

Li called for steady efforts for achieving the city's economic development goals and meticulous work for ensuring the well-being of the public.

He also said Shanghai needs to make good plans for next year's work and prepare for the 12th Party congress in the city.