A plan for the development of Shanghai's Pudong New Area in the next five years (2023-2027) has been issued. The plan will push Pudong New Area to seek more breakthroughs in institutional reform and opening-up. The area will receive more autonomy to implement reforms in key areas. Comprising 23 detailed measures, the plan states that Pudong will carry out larger stress tests, explore effective ways for mega-city governance, and become an important demonstration zone for the whole of China. Quan Heng, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), said the plan's focus is the institutional opening-up in Pudong. “By relaxing foreign entry thresholds for telecommunication services and healthcare in an orderly way, by better aligning the negative list for foreign investment with market entry requirements, and by exploring regulations for the digital economy, we can expect more rules, regulations and standards adopted in Pudong to be in line with internationally accepted ones. These will serve China’s goal of building a higher level open economic system,” he said.
The plan focuses on Pudong’s strengths in finance, talent, data flows, high-tech industries like bio-medicine and artificial intelligence (AI), and urban governance, said Xie Yiqing, Associate Researcher at the Institute of China Studies at the SASS. According to the plan, efforts should be made to roll out option products for the technology-heavy STAR Market on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Asset management companies will be supported to further fine-tune their domestic and foreign capital investment channels. Their businesses related to capital sources, investment methods and capital management should be further optimized. Meanwhile, more convenient settlements in both renminbi and foreign currencies should be provided for the cross-border technology trade. Attempts should be made to use the digital renminbi for trade settlements, e-commerce payments, carbon trading and green power trading, the plan stated.
Sun Lixing, Researcher at the Institute of World Economy of the SASS, said efforts should be made to accelerate innovation in the financial sector, especially at the institutional level. Mature markets show that financial innovation can serve as an effective tool to hedge and diversify risks, he said. According to the work report of the Shanghai municipal government, the city attracted the regional headquarters of 65 new multinational corporations last year, increasing the total to 956. Pudong was home to 449 MNC regional headquarters by the end of 2023, 30 of which were set up over the past 12 months. Companies or institutions with their headquarters in Pudong are encouraged to develop offshore economic and trade activities, the new plan stated, as reported by the China Daily.
