The city aims to increase per capita annual gross domestic product (GDP) from its current US$4,909 to US$7,500 by the year 2007, Shanghai Mayor Chen Liangyu said Sunday in his government work report delivered to the ongoing 12th People's Congress.
"In the next five years, the city will maintain a sustained GDP growth rate at 2 to 3 percent higher than the national level," Chen said.
To achieve this goal, Shanghai needs to speed up its construction of a new industrial framework, in which urban districts will focus on modern service industries with high added value and strong divergence while the major suburbs will become hubs for manufacturing and high-tech industries.
"The next five years will be a pivotal period for the city to enhance its status as China's financial center while simultaneously progressing towards becoming a global financial center," Chen noted.
By further opening up and developing new financial products, Shanghai aims to make its finance sector a major contributor in the city's economic growth by 2007.
Currently, finance, based on its sustainable growth in recent years, has been listed as one of the new pillar industries -together with trade and real estate.
The mayor also promised a legitimate and transparent financial development environment by 2007.
"As a large port city, Shanghai has a great advantage as a global logistics base," Chen said.
"Great projects like the completion of Pudong Airport and Yangshan Deep Water Harbor will help attract more world famous logistics enterprises to the city."
The secondary industry, contributing 50.9 percent to last year's GDP growth, will experience even greater growth in the years to come, as the city's four industrial bases, to be virtually completed by 2007, have already showed their great economic potential.
The four bases, respectively the integrated circuit industrial base in the east, car manufacturing base in the west, chemical industry base in the south and the iron/steel base in the north, will not only prove to be China's largest, but a genuine global force.
The blueprint presented in Chen's government work report also predicts that by 2007 the city will reach an urbanization rate of 80 percent and the university entrance rate will increase from the current 51 percent to 60 per cent.
The basic framework for a digital Shanghai will also be achieved by this date.
Chen encourages leading local enterprises to "go out" and speed up the establishment of the city's overseas' sales networks and research and development centers.
The successful bid to host World Expo 2010, one of the city's greatest achievements, will also help to spur the economy by attracting investment.
However, difficulties are also likely to arise in the coming years. The world economy is still facing a downturn. The impact on domestic industry of China's entrance to the WTO is yet to fully emerge.
And resource limitations have increasingly proved a hindrance on the city's path to further development.
(China Daily February 17, 2003)
