Shanghai: 70 years on

Editor's Note: Starting this May, the State Council Information Office has held news conferences for each province, autonomous region and municipality to give briefings about their social and economic development since the founding of New China 70 years ago.

During the Shanghai session held July 2 in Beijing, Mayor of Shanghai Ying Yong detailed the city's achievements.

Growth in comprehensive economic strength

The regional GDP of Shanghai in 1949 was 3.67 billion yuan ($528.87 million) and the number was just under 30 billion yuan in 1978. In 2017, the regional GDP of Shanghai exceeded 3 trillion yuan and the number reached 3.27 trillion in 2018.

Energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped from 0.72 tons of standard coal per 10,000 yuan to 0.38 tons.

The per capita GDP of Shanghai in 2018 was over $20,000, reaching the level in upper and middle level developed countries, yet per capital GDP in Shanghai in 1949 was only 274 yuan.

In 2018, the general public budget revenue reached 1.76 trillion yuan. Shanghai has contributed a tenth of China's general financial revenue with less than one-thousandth of the country's total land area.

Optimizing economic structure

In the past 70 years, Shanghai has developed a modern industrial system featuring State, private and foreign capital instead of the previous single public economy. The new industrial system in Shanghai is based on the modern services industry, with the tertiary industry accounting for 70 percent of Shanghai’s GDP in 2018 while the amount in 1978 was 18 percent.

Improvement in urban functions

Shanghai has ranked fifth in the Global Financial Centers Index after New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. A total of 1,605 licensed financial institutions have settled in Shanghai and the number increased 2.6-fold compared with that in 2005.

The amount of import and export of goods traded at Shanghai Port reached $1.2 trillion, accounting for 27.9 percent of that of China and 3.4 percent of global trade, ranking first among all cities in the world.

The throughput at the port of containers meeting international standards surpassed 40 million, ranking first in the world for the ninth consecutive year. Cargo and passenger throughput by air ranked third and the forth in the world.

In 2018, Shanghai's investment in research and development (R&D) accounted for 4 percent of its total GDP. The city is accelerating the pace of its development into a science and technology innovation center with global influence as the number of patent ownerships per 10,000 people has reached 47.5 and the transaction amount of technical contracts has exceeded 130 billion yuan.

Forming a high-level opening-up pattern

Since reform and opening-up began in 1978, Shanghai has seen accumulated actual foreign investment of over $240 billion. Currently Shanghai has clustered 687 regional headquarters of transnational companies and 448 foreign-funded R&D centers, hosting the most foreign-funded headquarters on the Chinese mainland.

Shanghai enterprises have reach out to 178 countries and regions around the world for overseas investment and has been seeking new opportunities and development space during the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Improvement in people's livelihoods

Per capita disposable income in Shanghai reached 64,000 yuan in 2018 and the average life expectancy has increased from 73.35 to 83.63 since reform and opening-up began, reaching the global advanced level.

The per capita urban housing area has climbed from 7.4 square meters to more than 36.7 sq m, while the per capita green area has increased to 8.2 sq m from 0.13 sq m in 1949.

The total length of rail transit lines in operation in Shanghai has reached 704.9 kilometers, ranking first among all metropolitan areas in the world with a daily passenger flow on subways of more than 10 million.