Pudong's GDP growth surges 6.1% to $138b on back of high-tech development

Shanghai's Pudong New Area recorded a GDP of 931.8 billion yuan ($137.7 billion) in the first half of the year, showing a 6.1 percent year-on-year growth and an acceleration of 0.4 percentage points from the first quarter, according to the data released by the local statistics bureau on Monday.

Industrial value-added growth in the district picked up to 7.6 percent in the first half of the year, 0.7 percentage points higher than the first quarter. Output generated by industrial enterprises with a minimum annual sales revenue of 20 million yuan each totaled 704 billion yuan, up 8.9 percent from a year earlier.

The automotive manufacturing sector continued to outperform, with output surging 19.1 percent year-on-year to hit 216.6 billion yuan. New energy vehicles accounted for 85.8 percent of total vehicle production.

Driven by major national strategic projects in shipbuilding, offshore engineering, aerospace and aviation, the complete equipment manufacturing industry in Pudong generated 106.5 billion yuan of output in the first six months, up 13 percent year-on-year.

The tertiary industry's added value in Pudong rose 6 percent in the first half, among which the financial sector recorded strong year-on-year growth of 9.6 percent.

New quality productive forces have served as a major driver. The information transmission, software and IT services sector expanded 8.9 percent, with integrated circuit design seeing its revenue spike by 21.8 percent. Scientific research and technical services grew 3.7 percent in the first half of the year, during which period two Class 1 innovative drugs and 13 Class III innovative medical devices received regulatory approval.

Overnight stays by overseas visitors in Pudong totaled 587,300 in the first six months, an 18 percent jump yearly.

Fixed-asset investment across the district rose 11.7 percent in the first half. This can be largely attributed to the 27.5 percent surge in high-tech industry investment, which helped to pull up the overall investment growth by 7 percentage points. Industrial investment soared 24.9 percent, with sectors including electronics, complete equipment, aerospace and biomedicine all recording investment growth exceeding 25 percent.