China unveils comprehensive reform plan for Pudong New Area

China has unveiled a comprehensive reform plan for Pudong New Area, with a focus on the financial market and technology development, according to the plan issued on Monday by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council.

The plan outlines a strategy to promote financial support for technological innovation, and addresses the need to ease capital market listings and financing for technology enterprises, with new options and futures products such as shipping index launches under consideration.

The plan aims to support the high-level reform and opening-up of the Pudong New Area, to build it into a leading area for socialist modernization construction, and to explore and carry out comprehensive reform pilots from 2023 to 2027.

The document implements the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, and could lead to specific measures in building Shanghai into an international financial center, an international shipping center and an international science and technology center, Li Huiyong, an executive with Shanghai-based Hwabao WP Fund Management Co, told the Global Times on Monday.

Promoting financial support for science, technology and innovation is a focus of the reform plan. It outlines institutional arrangements in the capital market for mergers and acquisitions, as well as new options on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board, also known as the STAR Market.

The STAR Market has facilitated the entry and exit of capital for the primary market, and has played a significant role in solving the funding problems for sci-tech enterprises, and the plan is expected to put more focus on reform of the secondary market, Li said.

Encouraging the development of venture capital is another key aspect of the plan, which aims to guide private capital to participate in the establishment of venture capital funds and equity investment funds in a market-oriented way, including fostering a community of angel investors to better serve market needs with diversified funding sources.

The reform plan further aims to enhance the quality and efficiency of technology insurance services. Relying on the Shanghai Insurance Exchange, insurance products and models will be explored to deepen the pilot technology insurance risk compensation mechanism based on market principles.

The plan calls for new measures to build a high-level market access system in the Pudong New Area, and consideration of ways to ease the foreign access restrictions in telecommunications services, health care and other services.

Pudong New Area is an important engine of economic development in Shanghai and is at the forefront of China's high-level openness. Pudong New Area's GDP is expected to have reached 1.68 trillion yuan ($233.5 billion) in 2023, the government work report revealed on Wednesday. The report also forecast GDP growth of about 6 percent in 2024.