The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the "five centers" initiative and accelerating the building of a modern socialist international metropolis with global influence on March 28. Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said the goal is to make the city a global center for finance, trade, shipping, science, and technology.
Last year the city’s gross domestic product was 4.72 trillion yuan. In 2023, the container throughput of Shanghai Port approached 49.16 million twenty-foot equivalent units, ranking first in the world for the 14th consecutive year. At present, Shanghai's cumulative actual use of foreign capital has exceeded 350 billion U.S. dollars, with a total of more than 70,000 foreign-funded enterprises. More than 37,000 foreign card POS machines were installed in the city last year to make it easier for overseas tourists to pay for goods.
The integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence were the top three sectors in the city last year and worth a combined 1.6 trillion yuan. The Shanghai government will also work to create industry clusters worth at least 1 trillion yuan in electronic information, life and health, automobiles and high-end equipment. The government also wants the advanced materials and fashion consumer goods industrial clusters to eventually be worth 500 billion yuan.
