Dishui Lake Financial Bay aims big for HQ economy

The Lin-gang Special Area – situated in East China's Shanghai – is speeding up the construction of its Dishui Lake Financial Bay project.

It's located in the Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area of the Lin-gang Special Area, where about 1,000 enterprises have settled down over the past three years.

Besides Dishui Lake Financial Bay, the Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area at the north side of the Dishui Lake will house a central zone, a cross border trade and international communities, as well as a global information industrial cluster.

As the first tranche of projects for the Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area, the financial bay will be rolled out in three phases.

The first phase will feature four 100-meter towers and an office building. An international-style financial street with modern elements will be built in the second phase.

Currently, construction of the overground main buildings is progressing well and the piling and foundations work in the second phase has been completed, a project manager said.

According to schedule, by the end of the year all residential buildings will have been delivered. The main structure of the commercial and office buildings will be capped and the landmark project of the first phase – the Rong yao zhi huan, or Ring of Honor – will complete its steel structure hoisting.

In the meantime, the Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area is inviting business and investment and incubating startups to come to the sector.

"Starting from scratch, as the main force in the development of the Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area, the companies in the Lin-gang Special Area have 907 new players in the service sector," said Ren Xiang, vice chief economist of Shanghai Lin-gang Special Area Economic Development Co Ltd.

These companies have brought about 125.3 billion yuan ($17.98 billion) of registered domestic capital and $2.12 billion of foreign capital – including 46 businesses affiliated to the world's top 500 companies and 61 enterprises affiliated to China's top 500 companies, Ren added.

The Modern Service Industry Opening-up Area aims at building a "3+3" system. This means it will launch three leading industrial platforms for cross-border financial services, new international trade and high-end international shipping – and three basic service platforms for international law, international education and international talent.

Over the past three years, the Lin-gang Special Area has attracted 450 financial projects, including 40 licensed financial institutions and various financial tech firms and investment companies. Most of them have settled down in the core area of Dishui Lake Financial Bay.

Last year, a group of domestic and international leading trading corporations moved there – including Aluminum Corp of China, Jiangxi Coppe and Itochu from Japan, as well as container terminal operator Dubai Ports World and Singapore-based BSM Ship Management.