Conference on High-quality Development in Hongkou Held

On September 14, the Municipal Government Press Office held the 11th Municipal Government Press Conference themed "High-quality Development in Shanghai": the Special Session for Hongkou District themed "New Urban Benchmark of the North Bund in Shanghai". Li Qian, Chief of the CPC Hongkou District Committee, introduced the situation and work measures for promoting high-quality economic and social development in Hongkou District. Lu Ming, Deputy Chief of the CPC Hongkou District Committee and District Governor, Cheng Jun, Director of the North Bund Development Office of Hongkou District, Wan Jianhui, Director of the Hongkou District Development and Reform Committee, and Li Ji, Director of Hongkou District Financial Work Bureau attended the press conference and answered questions from correspondents.

Hongkou, located at the intersection of the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek, boasts the sceneries on both sides of the Huangpu River. It has obvious geographical advantages and profound development accumulation. Since the approval of the new round of development and construction plan for the North Bund in 2020, Hongkou has actively promoted the implementation of the North Bund plan, led and driven the entire district to accelerate high-quality development, and made every effort to create a new benchmark for urban development in the new era. The grand blueprint of the North Bund will be transformed into construction drawings, and the new development concept will be deeply implemented. The goal of creating an image within three years, shaping functions within five years, and completing construction within ten years will be anchored. By gathering the strength of the urban area and the global wisdom, the organic renewal and transformation development of the North Bund will be accelerated. Efforts are made to establish and improve the development and construction mechanism, prepare a master plan, and strengthen and complete special plans for the central green axis, the underground space, and the style-protection neighborhoods. The renovation of the buildings in old neighborhoods below level 2 in this area was fully completed in the first half of 2021, and the development and construction will enter the fast lane. The World Reception Hall has been completed and put into use, and several high-end business carriers such as Sinar Mas Plaza, North Bund Raffles, and AIA Financial Center have been built and put into operation. Some landmark projects such as Shanghai North Bund Center (a 480-meter new landmark in Puxi) and Shanghai Huamao Center at No. 56 Neighborhood have started construction, and 22 major projects with a total investment of over 80 billion yuan have been accelerated, with the comprehensive development and construction taking shape. One river, one creek, and one port have been fully opened up, and the North Bund Navigation Park has taken on a new look. Major events, such as the North Bund International Shipping Forum and the Shanghai Rowing Open, have made exciting debuts, and the city-level tourist resorts are unforgettable. During the May Day holiday, the North Bund received over 120,000 tourists, an increase of more than five times compared to the same period in 2019, becoming a viewing platform for Shanghai's century-old charm and its achievements in the reform and opening up.

New benchmarks for urban development continue to accumulate momentum and increase energy

As an important position of Shanghai's central radiation, we adhere to a high level of internal and external opening up, significantly enhancing the attractiveness of regional investment and core competitiveness. Since the beginning of this year, we have visited Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan for investment promotion, attracting 106 key projects with a total investment of over 60 billion yuan. From January to August, the registered capital of newly established enterprises reached 23.6 billion yuan, ranking first in the central urban area; From January to July, the actual foreign investment reached 262 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 22.9%, and 15 new headquarters enterprises at the urban and secondary levels were added. Functional institutions, such as the Shanghai Representative Office of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Shanghai Asset Management Association, have successively settled in. International financial giants such as Dutch Global Life and Canadian Manulife have accelerated their gathering, and the world's Hidden Champion Enterprises’ tour to Hongkou has successfully launched. Besides, the regional economy has accelerated its progress towards the high-end links of the industrial chain and the high-value chain segments of the service chain. The advantages of the shipping and financial industries are constantly improving. Recently, Hongkou has gathered over 4,500 shipping enterprises and nearly 40 functional institutions, as well as over 2,100 financial enterprises and institutions. The asset management scale exceeds 8 trillion yuan, and there are private placements at the level of 15 billion yuan, ranking first in the city. Noticeably, the regional economic contribution of the two dominant industries exceeds 30%. From January to August, the general public budget revenue of the entire district reached 15.442 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, achieving 80.1% of the annual target. The total amount and the growth rate ranked fourth in the downtown area, and the completion progress ranked first.

The people's urban construction continuously explores new development paths

Efforts are made to deeply implement the important concept of the people's cities, continuously leave the best resources to the people, and serve the people with high-quality supplies. Low-carbon living has become a new trend, and the entire district has strengthened the promotion of garbage classification and resource utilization. The effectiveness of garbage classification work ranks among the top three in the city, with a 35% reduction in daily dry waste production compared to 2018, and a 200% increase in daily recyclable waste production. Breakthroughs have been made in urban renewal. Since the beginning of this year, 440 households have signed contracts on the sporadic renovation of old buildings, and Ruikangli has been selected as a pilot project for urban renewal in the city, promoting the implementation of a 2.5-million-square-meters beautiful home. In particular, significant progress has been made in the issue of housing safety in Baomin Xincun Community in the past 10 years. A round of willingness consultation was launched on June 26, with a consent rate of 98.4%. Moreover, social governance has formed a new brand, and the grassroots governance innovation mechanism based on police stations, judicial offices, and law firms has formed a brand, which has been replicated and promoted throughout the city, becoming the "Fengqiao Experience" of the new era in Shanghai. This year, more than 13,000 conflicts and disputes have been resolved, with over 98% resolved on-site at the grassroots level. The number of police cases about disputes has decreased by 19.4% compared to the previous month.

On the new journey, based on the actual situation of the district, Hongkou took optimizing resource allocation and strengthening innovation leadership as the underlying logic of high-quality development of Hongkou, formulated corresponding implementation opinions, made it clear that innovation should run through the whole process of high-quality development, accelerated the construction of the North Bund of Shanghai and the Golden Triangle of the Huangpu River, and better became an important display window of the Chinese path to modernization, with the new look of the new benchmark of urban development in the new era.

Facing the world and strengthening resource allocation capabilities

Building the North Bund of Shanghai and creating a new urban benchmark not only requires showcasing the form and foundation of the new benchmark but also strengthening the global resource allocation function and forging a core competitiveness that leads the future. Internally, we focus on resource integration, based on limited space, strengthen the overall coordination and cooperation of resources, promote regional coordinated development, complementary advantages, and overall improvement, and maximize resource utilization efficiency, carrying capacity, and output efficiency. Focusing on external agglomeration and radiation, actively serving and integrating into the construction of Shanghai's "Five Centers" and "Four Major Functions", deepening the high-level reform and opening up, we have made more market-oriented and globalized platforms, institutions, and enterprises to gather at Hongkou, gathered key strategic elements such as global capital, talent, technology, and information, and enhanced resource allocation capabilities.

Facing the development and enhancing the industry development

Based on the "2 + 4 + X" industry foundation in Hongkou, we vigorously promote the internationalization, digitization, greening, and distinctive development of the industries. In terms of internationalization, we improve the level of foreign investment utilization in advantageous industries such as finance and shipping, create international cooperation zones for shipping service and trade, strengthen the global investment partnership plan, attract a group of high-growth hidden champion enterprises, vigorously develop professional and productive service industries, integrate into the high-end global value chain and industry chain, and enhance the industry internationalization. In terms of digitalization, we promote the implementation of chain owners and digital application scenarios, empower small and medium-sized enterprises and traditional industries to use digital technology to achieve iterative upgrades, promote innovation in enterprise service methods, business models, and industry formats, and accelerate the digital transformation of industries. In terms of greening, relying on platforms such as the Shanghai Environmental Protection Exchange and the Green Technology Bank, we comprehensively do relevant matters related to the landing of the China Carbon Exchange, develop professional services such as carbon audit, carbon testing, carbon assessment, and carbon finance, and promote the development of industrial greening. In terms of specialization, we accelerate the construction of projects such as the North Mid-ring Technology Innovation Biotechnology Park and rely on benchmark enterprises such as Blue Crystal Microorganisms to lay out new tracks for big data, great health, new materials, and new energy.

Facing the future and enhancing technological innovation

Hongkou focuses on building an ecosystem of technological innovation development, promotes the transfer and transformation of technological achievements, the development of technological service industries, and the clustering of technological innovation headquarters, and enhances the strategic support role of technological innovation in high-quality development. Besides, it deeply promotes the transformation of innovative achievements, co-builds technology innovation incubators, innovation consortiums, and new research and development institutions by relying on the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP) and the Shanghai Research Institute of Materials, and promotes the accelerated collaboration between industries, colleges, institutes, governments, and users. Moreover, it accelerates the development of the technology service industry, orients to the demand for technological innovation and entrepreneurship, focuses on professional fields such as development and design, technology transfer, entrepreneurship incubation, intellectual property, testing and certification, technology finance, and technology consulting, and cultivates a group of highly competitive technology service enterprises and institutions. It promotes the clustering of technology innovation headquarters, boosts the deep integration of the innovation chain with the industry chain, capital chain, and talent chain, builds technology innovation industry funds and enterprise integration and innovation centers, and attracts little technology giants, professional, refined, special and innovative enterprises, as well as listed companies and unicorn enterprises.

Facing the market and unleashing the vitality of reform and innovation

Hongkou orients to demands and problems, breaks down institutional barriers and path constraints that constrain development, and injects new momentum into high-quality development. Focusing on risk sharing, it studies to establish government guidance models characterized by fiscal appropriation + investment, investment + loan, and investment attraction + investment, to drive various types of social capital into the field of venture capital and encourages early investment, investment in small companies and hard technologies. Focusing on innovation-related mass production, it explores "R&D offices go upstairs" and "functional recombination" to optimize the supply of carrier space, promote the integrated development of R&D and manufacturing, and propel more innovative achievements to enter enterprises, industries, and markets. Focusing on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, Hongkou establishes a fund pool of compensation for loan risk of enterprise related to financial integration service to alleviate the difficulties of financing difficulty and cost for small and medium-sized enterprises. Finally, it continuously optimizes the business environment to build a good ecology for the high-quality development of various market entities.