Pudong's pilot reforms spark high hopes

China will both intensify efforts to remove institutional barriers that hinder reforms and expand high-standard opening-up in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, as it seeks to optimize the role of Pudong as a pioneer of China's socialist modernization, officials said on Friday.

Hua Yuan, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said at a news conference in Beijing that Shanghai will speed up the formulation of special measures to relax market access in Pudong, with focus on eliminating barriers, opening-up scenarios, system upgrades and optimizing the environment.

He said Shanghai will also encourage foreign companies to participate in the formulation of domestic standards in accordance with the law, implement the global asset management partner program, and support the development of offshore economic and trade businesses for headquarters of institutions, among other measures, to synergistically advance opening-up.

"For instance, in the financial development realm, we will further support Pudong in refining the financial market, institutional and infrastructure system to better serve the development of the real economy," he said.

The general offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's Cabinet, on Monday unveiled an implementation plan for Pudong's pilot comprehensive reform between 2023 and 2027.

The plan states the area will be provided with more autonomy in the reform of key fields. Comprising 23 detailed measures, the plan states that Pudong will carry out larger stress tests and explore effective ways for megacity governance.

Li Chunlin, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said pushing forward the comprehensive pilot reforms of Pudong indicates that the country is attaching great significance to Pudong's leading role in the reform and opening-up process.

"We hope Pudong's comprehensive pilot reforms can generate a set of good experiences and practices that can be replicated and promoted nationwide."

Wang Xin, director of the Research Bureau of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said the pilot comprehensive reform "is conducive to enhancing Shanghai's functions in allocating global resources, achieving greater self-reliance in science and technology, and elevating the level of Shanghai as an international financial center".

"It also provides a useful reference for financial reforms nationwide," he said.

Wang said the PBOC will strongly support Pudong's pilot reforms, and will make more efforts to expand institutional openness in the financial sector, continue to facilitate foreign exchange policies and offerings in the services sector, and accelerate the implementation of various measures in the construction of the Shanghai science and technology innovation financial reform pilot zone.

Looking ahead, Cao Ning, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the ministry will provide greater support with more substantial measures to accelerate the pace of technological reform and development in Pudong, promoting the building of Shanghai into a globally influential science and technology innovation center.

He said the ministry will support Pudong in establishing a comprehensive and stable mechanism for sustained investment in basic research, exploring mechanisms for cutting-edge technology research and development, supporting research institutions and enterprises to undertake national tasks in cutting-edge technology, attracting more global tech talent to develop business in Pudong, and encouraging multinational companies to establish R&D centers in Pudong.

Wu Jincheng, government head of Pudong New Area, highlighted the great strides Pudong has made in the market-based allocation of data factors during the past few years, pledging further steps to deepen the institutional openingup of data factors and accelerate the development of data.

He said the area will explore the establishment of high-standard, internationally aligned rules for data security management and more convenient mechanisms for cross-border data flow.

More efforts will also be made to create a service ecosystem that integrates data asset compliance, quality, value assessment, issuance and trading as well as expedite the construction of the smart computing center and other public data platforms.