The Shanghai government released an interim report yesterday that showed its progress in implementing China’s 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) Plan.
The city's gross domestic product posted an annual growth rate above the expected 6.5 percent, and exceeded the 3 trillion yuan (US$433 billion) mark for the first time in 2017.
That took its global urban GDP ranking to seventh with 127,000 yuan per capita, which is 19.5 percent higher than at the end of 12th Five-Year Plan period and at the same level as some of middle developed countries.
The general public budget income also grew by 9.7 percent annually.
The industrial structure dominated by the service economy continued to be consolidated, with the service sector accounting for around 70 percent of the GDP. Manufacturing reversed the downward trend to account for 25 percent in overall GDP, and the value added output in strategic emerging industries increased by 14.1 percent from the end of the 12th plan.
The expenditure for research and development in the GDP increased from 3.7 percent to 3.9 percent, and patent ownership rose from 28.9 patents per 10,000 people to 44.5. Both indicators have exceeded expectations, indicating improvement in innovation.
The import and export scale hit a record high, with the total port trade value exceeding US$1 trillion, ranking first among the world’s cities. The total import and export of trade in services accounted for about 30 percent of the country.
Also, Shanghai's financial market posted the direct financing value that accounts for 85 percent of the country. A total of 107 regional headquarters of multinational companies have been set up over the past two and a half years.
In the next half of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Ma Chunlei, deputy secretary-general of the city’s government, said that Shanghai will further expand the opening-up, and broaden the market access for foreign capital into the banking, securities and insurance industries.
The average annual income of Shanghai residents at the end of 2017 was 58,988 yuan, topping all Chinese cities with an average year-on-year increase of 8.7 percent.
The average life expectancy at the end of 2017 was 83.4, up from 82.8 at the end of 2015.
Shanghai residents are breathing cleaner air than two years ago. The average density of PM2.5 in 2017 was 39 micrograms per cubic meter, a drop of 26.4 percent from 2015.
According to the report, the decrease of the pollutant PM2.5 has already hit the target set for 2020.
Meanwhile, the emission of other pollutants including SO2 and NOx in 2017 dropped 26.2 and 8.2 percent. The increased use of clean energy and transformation of industrial polluters contributed to the change.
The percentage of buses running on new and clean energy rose to 43 percent from 21.7 percent at the end of 2015, and electricity generated from wind and sunlight rose 16.4 and 134 percent as the use of coal dropped.
Public transportation in Shanghai continued to expand during the period with 62 kilometers of bus-only lanes built. At the end of 2017, 62 percent of all passengers using public transportation took the Metro, which ferried 14.4 percent more passengers during rush hours than at the end of 2015. The shortest interval between trains is within three minutes now.
Coal-fired power plants were transformed to ensure “super low emission” during the period with over 2,000 companies subject to volatile organic compounds management.
At the end of 2017, 94.5 percent of used water was handled properly, up from 92.8 percent at the end of 2015, while 100 percent of household waste was treated effectively to ensure they don’t harm the environment.
There was marked improvement in handling emergency patients and ensuring quality health care for the residents.
With one in five residents signing up to general practitioners, the number of patients seeking the best hospitals in Shanghai in 2017 increased only 0.7 percent from 2016.
Shanghai residents are also using the fastest fixed broadband Internet service in the whole of China with an average download speed at 20.52Mb per second at the end of 2017, a good 81 percent rise from the end of 2015.
The number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting Shanghai in 2017 was 318 million and 8.7 million, an increase of 15.2 and 9.1 percent from the end of 2015. They generated 188.8 billion yuan and 448.5 billion yuan of added value and income for the tourism industry.
The legislators pointed out problems in the public services that needed to be addressed. They include lack of beds at the best hospitals, lack of children’s medical services at residential communities, lack of seniors housing with medical functions and heavy academic burden on students.
