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A boon for Shanghai

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-09 07:42

The central government's decision to launch the Pudong New Area 19 years ago enabled the metropolis to finally switch to a path of supersonic social and economic growth, catching up and outshining earlier stars like the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

From a huge plot of mostly farmland, Pudong has emerged as a showcase of the nation's modernization and the reform and opening policy. It also has a magnetic effect on foreign investment and is the locomotive of the city's social and economic progress.

The recent announcement by the State Council to merge Shanghai's Nanhui district with the Pudong New Area is another timely and fresh shot in the arm for a city deeply troubled by the recent economic slowdown. For the first time in 16 years, Shanghai's economic growth rate has fallen below the national average.

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The new Pudong, which will double in size by bringing a Nanhui slightly bigger than Singapore, is expected to greatly ease its bottlenecks of scarce land resources and high land prices. These are vital for developing the advanced manufacturing industries mapped out in the city's new blueprint.

But size itself is only one of the many reasons for the merger. The preferential policies granted to Pudong can now be experimented with, and can benefit a much larger area, raising both the strength of Pudong and its newly annexed Nanhui.

It is also believed the merger will help to push forward Shanghai's agenda of building an international financial and shipping center, an ambitious program sanctioned by the central government a month ago.

Since much of the shipping center, such as the Yangshan deep water port, was in the jurisdiction of Nanhui and much of the financial center operates in the Lujiazui area of Pudong, the merger will help break administrative barriers, which have long been a bottleneck for the development of the two districts as well as large regions like the Yangtze delta.

An expanded Pudong, with a more efficient administration and well-coordinated planning, will likely raise a formidable player in the national and global market.

There are many other boons. For example, the national passenger plane project, the research and manufacturing of which was split in Pudong and Nanhui, will benefit from the merger.

Boons aside, concerns do exist. The agriculture in Nanhui, which features the annual peach blossom festival and signature watermelons, should remain intact as much as possible for the Shanghainese living in concrete jungles. Historical towns in Nanhui should be preserved. The rustic street names in Nanhui should also stay.

The expansion of Pudong into a 1,200-sq-km land on the estuary of Yangtze River to the East China Sea has created good conditions for Shanghai. It is now up to the local leaders to make these dreams come true.