The Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone has played a leading role in the economy of Pudong for the past 14 years and is pushing forward to become an international business center.
By the end of last year, the zone had contributed one-third of the new area's total fixed asset investment and gross domestic product growth.
Its registered capital, retail and wholesale space and real estate development scale have accounted up to half of the new area's total, according to the first special report targeting the zone.
"The Lujiazui central business district surely develops fastest compared with other CBDs developed in the same period in the world," boasted Kang Huijun, general manager of Shanghai Lujiazui Development (Group) Co Ltd.
The report says the zone has attracted more than US$20 billion investment from overseas banks.
So far, altogether 146 financial institutions have settled down in the zone, with 19 banks setting up their Chinese headquarters, including Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. A total of 32 overseas banks in the area have been approved to deal with RMB business.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange saw a total transaction volume top 828 million yuan (US$99.76 million) last year, up 71 percent year-on-year and accounting for 87 percent of the nation's total.
Now the stock exchange ranks third among the Asian five tops, exceeding its counterparts in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Futures Exchange completed deals worth 6.05 trillion yuan last year, rising 370 percent from the previous year.
Special efforts will be made to attract banks, insurance companies and securities companies. Regional headquarters of the world's 500 top companies will also be most welcome.
Besides, institutions in the service sector, such as law offices, accounting firms and consultants will be attracted to serve the headquarters, Kang said.
Of course, much improvement is still needed for the CBD, which centers around Lujiazui and extends to the area along the Century Boulevard.
"We will mainly solve the traffic problem and add more commercial and entertainment facilities in the area, so as to encourage development of the service sector," said Zhou Weimin, manager of the planning and development department of the group.
Currently, a number of intersections along the broad five-kilometer Century Boulevard, which runs from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower to the Century Park, have made the traffic very complicated.
"The ground traffic condition is so confusing that I always feel as if I entered a maze,"  said Zhang Lei, a taxi driver, referring to the exit to Pudong of the Yan'an Road E Tunnel where gather the scenic spots like the Oriental Pearl tower and the Jin Mao Tower and a lot of office buildings.
Besides, it is also inconvenient for pedestrians to walk across the Century Boulevard because it takes much time. It often happens that when the green traffic light is off many people just walk to the middle of the avenue.
Now for the first step, the district government is considering to build passageways to connect those first-grade office buildings.
Also along the Century Boulevard, commercial and entertainment facilities are also planned to satisfy demand of white-collar workers.
"The first-phase plan stressed too much on the CBD development and construction, which paid far more attention to building top office buildings and relatively neglected arrangements for retailing, restaurants and other relaxation places," said Yang Zhouyi, secretary-general of the Pudong Reform and Development Research Institute.
"As a result, many office clerks work in Pudong while living in Puxi."