context: Home to leading tech firms, financial corporations and MNC headquarters, Pudong is Shanghai’s core financial and business centre and one of the PRC’s resource intensive areas. With no signs of the tech and finance war with the US cooling down under the Biden administration, Pudong is afforded a new mission as the pivot for domestic and international economic circulation, circumventing uncertanties that still linger over Hong Kong.
Another reform experimentation zone has been appointed. The document, ‘Opinions on supporting high-quality reform and opening-up of Pudong New Area as the leading zone for socialist modernisation’, was jointly released by CCP Central Committee and State Council on 15 Jul 2021, specifying
- strategic importance of the Pudong New Area for
- innovation
- expanding domestic consumption
- governance modernisation
- global resource allocation with service industry as the core
- exploring higher quality reform and opening up
- goals
- a comprehensively modernised economic mechanism by 2035, including
- modernised urban governance and urban district
- world-class competition capability
- strong global competitiveness, attractivity, and influence by 2050
- a comprehensively modernised economic mechanism by 2035, including
Key areas of reform include
- high-quality opening up
- further pilot Shanghai Pilot Free Zone Lingang special area
- constructing global transportation pivot
- attracting global talent
- further increasing financial opening-up
- promoting innovation
- key scitech R&D
- integrated circuits
- life sciences
- AI
- world-class industry clusters
- improving scitech and innovation environment
- channeling financial resources to innovation
- key scitech R&D
- reforming governance
- streamlining administration
- creating fair business environment
- improving land utilisation, energy consumption and data trading
- improving urban modernisation
- expanding domestic consumption
- security and risk prevention, above all preventing
- financial risks
- public health risks
- risks in production processes
A highlight is the financial market opening policy mentioned in the Opinions, notes Zhao Yongchao 赵永超 Hualuo Think Tank Financial Research Institute dean. Pudong will continue to leverage its advantage as Shanghai's financial hub, attracting international capital inflows. Moving on, Pudong may become an important frontier for exporting the Chinese model, Zhao argues.