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Pudong
10/8/2004 15:44

Pudong Today

The Pudong New Area, with a size of 522.75 square kilometers and a population of 1.7667 million by the end of 2003, is a triangular area to the east of the Huangpu River and to the west of the Yangtze River estuary. It occupies the central spot of China's coastal line where the Yangtze River pours into the East China Sea. With the developed downtown Shanghai and the vast and rich Yangtze River Delta in its west precincts, the new area has an easy access to economically-developed countries and regions on the Pacific Rim and in Southeast Asia. The development of Pudong started in early 1990s. After more than 10 years, the great efforts in opening up and development have paid off. Today, it's a bright pearl on the mouth of the Yangtze River.

 

Economic Development

Since the introduction of its opening policy in 1990, Pudong has been playing an exemplary and spearheading role in creating new systems, industrial upgrading and opening door wider to the outside world. It¡¯s GDP growth rate surpassed the city¡¯s average for 13 consecutive years. In 1990, Pudong's economic output value was only 6.024 billion yuan, but the figure soared to more than 100 billion yuan in 2001 and 150.388 billion yuan in 2003, up 9.1 times and representing an annual increase of 19.5% in terms of comparable prices. In 2003, of the total added value of the district, its secondary industry reached 79.869 billion yuan, up 20% from the previous year and the figures with its tertiary industry stood at 69.84 billion yuan and 14.9%, respectively.

 

Main Indexes of Economic Development in Pudong District

(100 million yuan)

Year    Added Value    Total Industrial Output Value    Retail Sales    Fixed Asset Investment

1990    60.24    176.85    14.28    14.15

1991    71.54    228.90    18.00    28.95

1992    101.49 363.71    28.23    75.00

1993    164.00 604.40    41.92    164.56

1994    291.20 886.35    82.74    261.13

1995    414.65 968.03    110.00 285.07

1996    496.47 1130.42 140.21 395.04

1997    608.22 1349.01 162.23 504.36

1998    704.27 1414.99 178.97 583.22

1999    801.36 1450.81 198.31 438.20

2000    920.52 1625.77 215.17 351.06

2001   1082.36    1888.74    233.02 416.18

2002   1251.16    2190.00    256.20 586.61

2003   1503.88    2855.90    313.24 602.16

 

Investment Environment

To improve its investment environment, Pudong has insisted on giving priority to the infrastructure construction. Since 1990, the district has invested a total of 130 billion yuan into urban construction projects. The district had completed a number of major projects, including the Pudong International Airport, Metro Line 2, Waigaoqiao Power Plant, the East China Sea Natural Gas project and the exemplary maglev. By the end of 2003, overseas investors from more than 84 countries and regions had invested in 10,151 projects in the district, involving contracted investment of 21.996 billion US dollars. Sixty-three foreign-funded financial institutions had branched into the district. There were a total of 7,933 enterprises registered in the district, with a combined registered capital of 44.486 billion yuan.

Financial and Trade Zone

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Lujiazhui Financial and Trade Zone facing the Bund across the Huangpu River is the city's largest central business district. By the end of 2003, a total of 143 Chinese and foreign financial institutions had started operation in this zone. And the transaction volumes a number of key markets, including Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange, Shanghai Property Rights Exchange, and Shanghai Real Estate Trade Center have kept growing. A number of world multinational corporations, such as Siemens, Alcatel, Tomson and Worldbest have relocated their regional headquarters to the district and some of China's largest corporations have also moved their headquarters to Lujiazhui. By the end of 2003, there were 1,036 skyscrapers had been either completed or under construction in the district, with an occupancy rate of 89.8%.

 

Free Trade Zone

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Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone is one of the largest bonded areas in China. The free trade zone has expanded its business in international trade, export processing and bonded storage businesses. In 2003, the Waigaoqiao port handled 55.774 million tons of cargo and 6.614 million TEUs of containers, up 42.5% and 42.8%, respectively, from the previous year. In the year, the operational revenue of the storage firms in the zone totalled 59.59 billion yuan, up 24.4% from the previous year. Their business reached major areas all across the country.

 

Export Processing Zone

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Jinqiao Export Processing Zone has become one of Shanghai's key bases for development of its high and new technology. By the end of 2003, the zone had attracted a total of 234 overseas-invested enterprises with a combined contractual overseas investment of 10.07 billion US dollars, of which 3.05 billion US dollars had already been utilized. In the year, the zone's industrial output value totalled 103.819 billion yuan, of which the output value of high and new technology industries reached 50.769 billion yuan, or 48.9% of the total. Fast development has been reported in high and new technology industries such as manufacturing of cars and auto parts, microelectronics and computers, modern telecommunication facilities, biomedicine, integration of optical and electric machinery and new household electric appliances.

 

 

 

High-Tech Park

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Zhangjiang High-Tech Park's attraction has become more salient. By the end of 2003, there were 140 IC firms and 30 verified research institutions. It also had buildings designated for enterprise incubation, with a combined floor space of 334,800 square meters and housing 382 firms. Of the world¡¯s top 10 IC companies, seven had already branched into this zone. The Pudong software park and the 863 information security projects had played an important exemplary role. More than 215 enterprises, including the Citibank Asia-Pacific Software, Sony, BearingPoint and Kyocera, had moved into the software park.