Leadership Insights | Xi's Stories: Shanghai-New Practices of Local Governments in the New Era

Accelerating the construction of a modern socialist international metropolis 

Dubbed the “Pearl of the Orient”, Shanghai has been an important trading hub where rivers and the sea meet since ancient times. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in 1978, Shanghai has ushered in new development opportunities and witnessed rapid economic growth and urban construction.

In this new era, Shanghai is shouldering new missions and responsibilities. In order to promote high-quality development and build a new development paradigm, Shanghai focuses on the important goal of building an international economic center, a financial center, a trading center, a shipping center, and a science and technology innovation center, and continues to deepen the reform and opening up.

In 2023, the total output of Shanghai’s strategic emerging industries accounted for 43.9% of the total amount of industries above the designated size, with the size of the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence reaching 1.6 trillion yuan. 

58 major industrial projects with an investment of more than 1 billion yuan started construction.

The C919 homegrown large passenger aircraft and the first domestically built large cruise ship were put into commercial operation. 

The total import and export volume of Shanghai reached 4.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%, and the actually used foreign investment reached US$24.09 billion, hitting a record high. 

The container throughput of Shanghai Port reached 49.158 million TEUs, ranking first in the world for consecutive years. 

The total transaction volume of Shanghai’s financial market reached 3,373.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 15% compared to the previous year.

The openness of the international financial center has been further enhanced, with 47 new financial institutions registered, increasing the total number to 1,771. 

The numbers of regional headquarters of multinational companies and foreign-funded R&D centers in Shanghai increased by 65 and 30, respectively, bringing the total numbers to 956 and 561, respectively. 

And the first batch of innovative enterprise headquarters reached 40. 

(Source: Shanghai Municipal Government Work Report 2024)

In the future, Shanghai will completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, take the major national strategies as the guidance, and make active action to move ahead with great courage. It will fully play a leading and exemplary role in promoting Chinese modernization, and contribute more wisdom and strength to the development of China and the world.