Shanghai to invest $32b in major projects in 2025

Shanghai plans to invest about 240 billion yuan ($32.7 billion) in major projects in 2025 as part of the city's efforts to further boost investment, Gu Jun, director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said during a news conference on Thursday.

The city will make full use of special bonds for infrastructure construction, urban renewal, and social undertakings. The various financial instruments such as infrastructure real estate investment trusts should be better used to support the construction of key projects, said Gu.

Meanwhile, more private enterprises will be encouraged to take part in the construction and operation for projects related to urban renewal, improvement of people's livelihood and industrial clusters. Shanghai will set up a database for key privately-invested projects to provide better support regarding land planning, energy use and financing, said Gu.

Continued economic recovery, consolidation of the city's economic strength, accelerated development of new quality productive forces and deepened reform and opening-up are the major highlights of Shanghai's economic development last year, according to Gu.

Shanghai saw its GDP grow 5 percent year-on-year to top over 5 trillion yuan in 2024, as the municipal government has estimated. Its local general public budget for 2024 rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier, while the total value of fixed asset investment reported a 5 percent annual increase.

Shanghai's total import and export value climbed 1.3 percent year-on-year to reach 4.27 trillion yuan in 2024, reaching a new record and showing the city's resilience in foreign trade, said Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce said at the Thursday press conference.

The city used $17.5 billion of foreign capital last year, accounting for 15 percent of the country's total. It also attracted 60 new regional headquarters of multinational companies and 30 foreign-funded research centers last year, bringing the total number to 1,016 and 591, respectively, according to Gu.

All the 150 reform measures introduced in the business environment improvement plan, which was released in February, were all implemented by the end of last year. Over 116 billion yuan of tax or fees were reduced for companies in 2024 to further boost market vitality.

The annual container throughput of Shanghai Port reached 51.5 million TEUs last year, ranking first in the world for the 15th consecutive year and rising as the world's first port to stand above the 50-million-TEUs level.

Accommodating 1,782 licensed financial institutions, Shanghai saw its financial trading value amounting to 3650 trillion yuan last year. Options for lead, nickel-tin and alumina were listed on the Shanghai Futures Exchange in September, marking the exchange's full coverage of all non-ferrous metal options.

Shanghai-based service providers with an annual sales revenue of at least 20 million yuan saw their income and profit both up by two-digits last year. Business activities among non-manufacturing companies came at 56.2 in December, higher than the national level and standing above the threshold of 50.

The annual industrial output of the three pioneering industries, including integrated circuit, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, is estimated to rise 11.9 percent on a yearly basis in 2024. High-end equipment, ship making and large commercial passenger aircraft have shown rapid growth last year, said Gu.

The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people reached 57.9. Up to 25,000 high-tech companies have been settled down in the city. The turnover of technology contracts totaled 520 billion yuan last year.

Urban unemployment rate in Shanghai is estimated at around 4.2 percent in 2024. Consumer price index remained flat from a year earlier while the disposable income per capita gained 4.1 percent, said Gu.

New highs:

- Imports and exports value: 4.27 trillion yuan

- Investment for major transportation projects: 95 billion yuan

China's No.1:

- IPO proceeds and combined market cap of the Shanghai-based companies listed on the STAR Market

- Number of banks' asset management companies, securities brokerages, fund companies and futures companies

- Number of NEVs: 1.65 million

- Density of 5G base stations

- Gigabit optical network construction

- Financing environment for SMEs

- Number of newly recognized unicorn companies in 2024: 10

- Number of innovative drugs approved for marketing overseas since 2023: four

- Growth rate of the value of overseas licensing transactions: 30.52 percent

World's No 1:

- Container output at Shanghai Port: 51.5 million TEUs

- Number of "gazelle companies"* in 2024: 67

- Trading volume of shipping index futures

- Import and export value at ports: 11 trillion yuan

Source: Municipal government of Shanghai, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Hurun Report

*A gazelle company is a high-growth company that has been increasing its revenues by at least 20 percent annually for four years or more, starting from a revenue base of at least $100,000.