CRI听力:Pudong New Area Marks 25th Anniversary

Reporter:
Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu River, where the Shanghai World Financial Center stands, was once rural farmland.

There used to be a saying among the locals that one would rather have a bed in Puxi, the historic center of the city, than own a house in Pudong.

In 1990, as part of China's opening-up policy, Pudong was chosen as the pilot area for economic reform.

Later that year, Shanghai Stock Exchange was launched.

Five years later, Fuji Bank from Japan set up its Chinese branch in the region, making it the first foreign bank to do so in China.

Zhao Qizheng, former deputy mayor of Shanghai, says Pudong is built based on the idea of innovation.

"At that time, the central authority set the market economy as the principle for development. So when developing Pudong, we tried to put the old ideas from the planned economy aside. For example, regarding infrastructure construction, previously the government was responsible for the entire cost. But in Pudong, government investment only accounted for 10 percent of the project, with the rest coming from private and foreign capital."

The volume of imports and exports passing through the area has reached 260 billion US dollars, making up over 55 percent of the total for Shanghai.

It also houses over 840 financial institutions and the offices of 308 of the world's top 500 companies.

But due to the global economic slowdown and rising costs, Pudong ended its double digit growth in 2014 with a 9 percent growth rate.

To cope with the change, starting from this year, the area is eyeing local private businesses as well as medium and small-sized companies as a new point of growth.

Shen Xiaoming, the Party Chief of Pudong, says he hopes Pudong can be the "it" place for business startups.

"By building up the scientific research and innovation center, we hope Pudong could be a wonderland for young people who wish to set up their own businesses.

If Pudong can have hundreds of thousands of new business starters, we will have the next Jack Ma in the future."

Earlier this week, a government-funded business start-up center was set up in Pudong, providing services and resources for entrepeneurs.

Qiao Xianru, the deputy chief of the center, says the center will also provide funding to eligible businesses.

"When a project starts to take shape, we will provide financial support to the project via our funding pool."

The authorities are also working on a project to cooperate with international companies in the area to offer a global business environment for local companies to learn and grow.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.