By Yin Jianhua
On July 16, the Launching Ceremony of National Carbon Market Online Trading & the China Carbon Trade Market Forum was held at Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, Sino US Trust Finance Building on No. 229 Tiantong Road around the North Bund. Being perseverant with hard and effective work, the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange has officially upgraded to China's carbon market online in Hongkou District. It also promoted the implementation of carbon neutrality and carbon peak put forward by the NPC and CPPCC this year.
The North Bund was extraordinarily busy in scorching July. The 10th Raffles Mall under the banner of CapitaLand Limited worldwide officially opened to the public. 2021 Xinhua Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index was formally released at the North Bund. More than 40 major projects settled at the North Bund. With the successful transfer of the plots of the new landmark along 480-meter North Bund in Puxi Area of Shanghai, the speed and height of developing the North Bund emerged while the soft power of the North Bund was shown.
Finance and Technology Work Together
In recent years, Hongkou has been actively working on the development strategy of building the financial center and the technology innovation center. It grasped the opportunity of the new round of technological revolution, took advantage of the complete financial market system and the sound financial institution system in the region and the strong scientific research foundation around the region and spared no efforts to turn the North Bund into the core bearing area of Shanghai Financial and Technology Center. Two years ago, the Shanghai Financial Technology Park and the Shanghai Financial Technology Industry Alliance were established in Hongkou successively. High quality enterprises were gathering rapidly, and their market influence was expanding constantly. A batch of leading enterprises and professional institutions, including Puyin Financial Technology Co., Ltd., Jili Group Financial Technology Co., Ltd., East Asia Futures Financial Technology Co., Ltd., Financial Technology Laboratory in Cooperation of Bank of Communications and Fudan University and Financial Technology Security Laboratory of China Academy of Communications, settled in Hongkou, which has preliminarily built the financial technology ecosystem characterized by the organic unity and interactive development between finance and technology and the coexistence of advanced technology industry and efficient financial capital flow.
With the growing status of the wealth management highland of the North Bund, the financial industry stimulated by digital transformation was bursting out with a strong development momentum. It was noticed that the Hongkou District Science and Technology Commission, the Academy of Financial Research，Zhejiang Province and Shanghai Chengtou Holding Co., Ltd. jointly created the "Digital Financial Technology Innovation Platform" project. The digital transformation of traditional finance enterprises was strengthened by research results through establishing the "calculation + finance" innovation laboratory on the basis of the research strength and industrial resources of the Academy of Financial Research, Zhejiang Province to actively introduce key enterprises of finance + technology and gradually form the Digital Financial Technology Innovation Platform where the digital finance industry clustered.
In order to continuously promote the steady and rapid growth in financial technology industry, Hongkou has recently formulated the special policy of the "Opinions on Promoting Development in Financial Technology in Hongkou", covering five aspects including encouraging the settlement of enterprises and specialized service institutions of financial technology, supporting the construction of innovation project of financial technology, advocating to expand the financing channel of enterprises of financial technology, strengthening supports for personnel of financial technology and improving the development environment of the financial technology industry, in a bid to provide enterprises with all-round and full-cycle service from the very beginning throughout its growth.
Walking from the North Bund to the World
The special symposium themed the Story of the CPC – the Practice of Xi Jinping's Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in New Era in Shanghai, jointly sponsored by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and the CPC Shanghai Committee, was held at the World Reception Hall around the North Bund on June 16. It was the debut of the World Reception Hall at the North Bund. Li Qiang, Shanghai Party Chief, shared three stories about Shanghai to the world, which not only shed a heavy color on expanding the world popularity of the North Bund, but also made the world see the new rise of the North Bund.
The North Bund was not only a stand to watch the beautiful scenery of the Huangpu River, but also a stage for industrial agglomeration and enterprise development. On China Maritime Day on July 11 this year, the 2021 Xinhua Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index was officially released at the North Bund. Since its first release in 2014, the North Bund has witnessed and recorded every breakthrough in the construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center for eight consecutive years. On the same day, 17 sailboats cruised around the mark on the Huangpu River at the North Bund in the form of performance competition. The public opening activities of boats also attracted a large number of citizens. It was learnt that nearly 4,700 shipping enterprises and 41 shipping functional organizations, such as COSCO Shipping Lines Co., Ltd., Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd (China) Shipping Ltd., Shanghai shipping Exchange and the China Shipowners' Association, have gathered at the North Bund. Therefore, it has become one of the areas with the most shipping services enterprises in Chinese mainland, the most obvious features of shipping department, the most well-prepared shipping elements and the most complete shipping industry chain. After years of development, the facilities of shipping function at the North Bund have been increasingly improved, the industrial elements have been continuously concentrated, and the shipping culture has been constantly planted. A good situation has been formed in which the construction of soft power and hard power interact and complement each other.
The Soft Power Leads Development
In the future, Hongkou will promote the gathering of substantial elements with soft power, spare no efforts to build the "Five Batches" brand project of Hongkou District in the new era, and actively build a batch of key projects such as the commercial and trade center on the north side of the Suzhou River, the "July 1" light and shadow show, and the opening-up of the North Bund Riverside. Hongkou will endorse the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange to build the trading market of national carbon emission right concerning China's significant strategy of "Carbon Neutralization and Carbon Peak". Taking advantage of the online trading of the national carbon emission right at the North Bund, Hongkou will take initiative in build the "carbon neutralization and carbon peak" demonstration zone at the North Bund, organizing the carbon neutralization action alliance and release a carbon index to constantly expand the carbon market ecosystem, and continuously improve the "soft power" to build a high-quality industrial agglomeration in the future.
Meanwhile, Hongkou will take the opportunity of putting the World Reception Hall into operation, and it will plan and hold a series of major brand activities such as the North Bund International Shipping Forum and the Wealth and Culture Forum. From the perspective of optimizing the urban functions, Hongkou will actively build several branches of the World Reception Hall that functionally supports each other to attract more professionals at home and abroad to gather at the North Bund.