Shanghai sets growth target of 5 percent
City’s 2024 economic focus includes speeding-up global trade hub plans
Shanghai’s GDP is expected to expand by about 5 percent this year after reaching 4.72 trillion yuan ($660 billion) in 2023, the city’s mayor, Gong Zheng, said on Jan 23.
The growth of residents’ per capita disposable income will keep pace with economic expansion, with the increase in consumer prices projected at about 3 percent, Gong said while delivering the Shanghai government work report at the annual session of the Shanghai People’s Congress, the city’s legislative body.
“Shanghai aims to accelerate the pace of building itself into an international trade center this year. It will actively participate in the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of a pilot zone for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation, while enhancing the international development capabilities of local service institutions in fields such as accounting and law,” Gong said.
The pilot zone was approved in Shanghai in October.
Another focus of Shanghai’s efforts will be comprehensively promoting the construction of Pudong New Area so that it can better fulfill its role as a pioneering area for China’s socialist modernization, facilitating the country’s high-level reform and openingup.
On Jan 22, the State Council released an implementation plan for Pudong’s pilot comprehensive reform from 2023 to 2027.
“Shanghai will fulfill the 280 tasks specified in the central government’s document and the city’s action plan about Pudong, including exploring retail business pilots in cross-border e-commerce imports of over-thecounter drugs and medical devices, promoting bonded maintenance, remanufacturing and bonded research and development outside the special customs supervision zone, and further building a leading area for international talent development,” said Gong.
“A batch of new regulations in Pudong will be introduced,” he said.
Shanghai’s new development momentum grew steadily and the dividends of reform and opening-up were steadily released, said Gong.
After completing the 208 tasks in
business environment benchmarking for the World Bank’s new evaluation system, a new round of reform with 150 tasks will be carried out this year to focus on being more marketoriented, international, and with a better rule of law, Gong said.
More than 1,900 enterprises were newly established in Shanghai per day on average last year.
The surveyed urban unemployment rate in Shanghai last year was 4.5 percent, and the target is aimed at below 5 percent this year, said Gong.
Research by China International Intellectech Co (CIIC), a State-owned human resources and intellectual services provider, showed that 81 percent
of firms have recruitment plans for fresh college graduates in 2024, with 32 percent of them saying that such headcounts will increase.
“Enterprises in new energy, electronic communications, and machinery manufacturing show a large number of recruitment needs, an increase of more than 22 percent compared with last year. Such sectors will continue to function as an effective support for employment absorption in the future,” said Zhang Hui, general manager of the operations management department of CIIC.
Last year, the total output value of industrial strategic emerging industries in Shanghai accounted for 43.9 percent of the total output value of industries above designated size, and the scale of the city’s three leading industries — integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence — reached 1.6 trillion yuan.
Shanghai’s total foreign trade reached 4.2 trillion yuan last year, a rise of 0.7 percent, and the actual use of foreign capital reached $24 billion, a record high.
“Last year, the number of regional headquarters of multinational companies and foreign-funded research and development centers in Shanghai increased by 65 and 30 respectively, bringing the total number to 956 and 561,” said Gong.