Shanghai to maintain stability in real estate
Print Edition
SHANGHAI’S economic slowdown is not putting pressure on the city, Mayor Yang Xiong said yesterday. It will continue to accelerate industrial upgrading, optimize trade and develop strategic new industries.
During a 90-minute press conference at the conclusion of the five-day annual session of the city legislature, the Shanghai People’s Congress, Yang answered questions raised by reporters from home and abroad on issues including economic growth, the pilot free trade zone, financial reform, scientific and technological innovation, the housing market, Disneyland and medical services.
“Shanghai has entered a period of mid-level economic growth for more than five years, which makes us among the first to enter the state of new normal as we now call it,” Yang said. “But the city is not under pressure, because the speed of growth remains decent, with a much better industrial structure, stable employment and growing fiscal revenue.”
Shanghai’s gross domestic product expanded 7 percent from a year earlier in 2014, compared with the national average of 7.4 percent and the pace of 7.7 percent in 2013.
But the contribution of the service sector grew to 64.8 percent of overall economic output, close to this year’s goal of 65 percent.
Yang said it wouldn’t be a worry if the pace of growth weakened, but “the city should pay more attention to developing a more competitive service sector, and expand the scale of its higher-end manufacturing sector” to lay the foundations for future growth.
The city has not set an economic growth target for this year. Last year the target was set at 7.5 percent.
Yang said Shanghai will continue policy innovation in an expanded free trade zone. “The city will play an active role in accelerating financial reform, and the innovation in the free trade zone is also expected to facilitate the city to become a center of scientific and technological innovation,” he said.
The 2015 negative list will continue to enlarge the opened-up areas as it did last year, which narrowed to 139 items from 190 items in the first version, Yang said. Full convertibility of the yuan and free movement of interest rates are still under study.
Yang said not to read too much into the small number of transactions since the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect was launched in November, and said it is due to serve important functions in opening the domestic capital market.
On housing, Yang again said there would be no easing of restrictions on purchases, dismissing speculation Shanghai will follow the example of some other cities.
“Shanghai will keep the real estate sector as stable as it did in 2014 ... huge volatility should be avoided,” Yang said. Last year, it built a “regular” 17 million square kilometer area of new homes, and kept prices within an acceptable range, he said.
As for the long-awaited Shanghai Disney Resort, Yang said its opening time still needed to be discussed between Disney and the company’s Chinese partner.
The resort and its supporting facilities will be completed this year, but the opening time still needs discussion, Yang said.
The Chinese and US operators have begun making plans to cope with expected large number of visitors to the first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland, he said. The experiences from the 2010 World Expo will be taken as reference to make the Disney operation “smooth and reliable,” he added.
Chen Chao, a senior official at Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone that manages the theme park, has said the resort’s ticketing system will have a preset daily limit on visitor numbers.
Yang said the government will be issuing a new regulation to manage mass activities to ensure the safety according to guidelines set by the central government.
“All the potential risks will be removed one after another,” Yang said.
Turning to traffic, he expected problems caused by construction on subway lines and major projects across the city, but the government will take measures to try to minimize their effect.
Meanwhile, the government is to make a total of 100,000 Shanghai car plates available this year, including 10,000 for new energy vehicles, Yang said. The quota this year is similar to 2014 as Shanghai continues to limit cars on the road.
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