40 years on

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

On April 18, 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council announced the opening-up of Pudong, which is now the Pudong New Area, as seen in the item from China Daily (right).

Today marks its 28th anni- versary. The area has risen from rural farmland to become an engine for economic and social development in the city and the nation.

During the past decades, with the area’s skyline changing rapidly, Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu River, has become an international financial, shipping and trading center for Shanghai and China. It has been transformed into an outward-looking and modern urban district with multiple functions.

Pudong New Area is a symbol of China’s reform and opening-up.

Compared with

1990, the GDP in Pudong has risen from 6 billion yuan to 965.1 billion yuan ($153.7 billion) last year. This year, the number is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan.

From January to June last year, the volume of imports and exports passing through Pudong reached 943 billion yuan, up 20 percent year-onyear.

In September 2013, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the first of its kind, was established in Pudong. It is an experimental field for reforms in the financial sector and other sectors.

In 2016, the FTZ produced 75 percent of GDP for Pudong New Area.