City to target 6.5% economic growth
Print Edition
SHANGHAI plans to grow its economy by 6.5 percent this year with priorities that include further development of the free trade zone and building a technology innovation center, Mayor Yang Xiong told members of the Shanghai People’s Congress yesterday in his annual work report.
Overall research and development expenditure is to be kept at above 3.8 percent as Shanghai steps up building technological strength, he said.
The government also aims to lift residents’ disposable incomes on a par with economic growth, and keep consumer inflation in line with the national level.
Last year, urban residents’ disposable incomes rose by 8.9 percent, while consumer prices increased 3.2 percent, higher than the national level of 2 percent.
“For the past year, Shanghai’s economic and social development was generally stable with progress better than expected,” Yang said. “The positive effects of innovation-driven development were further revealed.”
Shanghai’s plan to transform itself into a global center of innovation was approved in April last year by the State Council.
Over the past year, the city government drafted a plan for Zhangjiang Science City, began the construction of major science infrastructure projects, and nurtured mass entrepreneurship and innovation.
More than 500 makerspaces of various types were set up, over 90 percent of which were created by private investment.
This year, the city will build the Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science Center, improve market-oriented mechanisms for the transfer and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, and develop more international and attractive talent policies, Yang said.
“In implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, we will promote proprietary innovation and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements so as to foster a new growth pillar,” he said.
The city government also plans to further open up the free trade zone to foreign investment, enrich functions of free trade accounts, and simplify administrative procedures.
The mayor said that authorities will take steps to improve the negative list-based management system and accelerate the building of a new government administration system in the Pudong New Area to meet the needs of an open economy.
“We will focus on the system integration of further reform and opening-up measures, and strive to achieve more replicable and scalable institutional innovations,” Yang said.
Other major tasks for the government this year include intensifying structural reform on the supply side, improving public well-being, innovating social governance and urban management, accelerating urban-rural integration, developing an advanced socialist culture, and advancing ecological development and environmental improvement.
Public transport will be improved by building more Metro lines and bus-only lanes, Yang said. Work is progressing on four lines — the south extension of Line 5, and Lines 14, 15 and 18 — while another three will be completed this year.
When the third phase of Line 8, the east extension of Line 9 and Line 17 are completed they will add 55 kilometers to the city’s Metro network, Yang said.
At present, over 600 kilometers of Metro lines are in operation.
The total length of the subway system should reach 800km by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2020. Yang said the city is also planning 35km of bus-only lanes by the end of the year, including the 17.5km of bus-only lanes beneath the Yan’an Elevated Road, which will go into use soon.
Bus No. 71 will operate on the route from 4:30am to 11:30pm with an average interval of about three minutes. The first bus will leave Shenkun Road at 4:30am and the last at 10:30pm; times at the other end of the route — The Bund — will be 5:30am and 11:30pm.
Yang also said: “We will implement the new revised regulation on road safety, and advance the campaign targeting traffic rule violations while improving the routine mechanism for law enforcement.”
He said the city aims to eliminate 100 areas of serious congestion by renovation and the building of 10 new roads connecting different districts.
Also this year, construction will start on the Jungong Road Elevated Highway to connect the Xiangyin Road section of the Middle Ring Road with Changjiang Road W. in the northeast of the city. The highway is expected to relieve congestion on busy Yixian Road and the Inner Ring Road.
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