Shanghai, mainland China’s top finance and trade hub, is set to double down on efforts to prevent the “hollowing out” of its manufacturing sector even as it pursues global financial centre status.
The city’s next five-year plan, which will cover the period from 2026 to 2030, is expected to contain measures designed to lift manufacturing’s share of gross domestic product to no less than 25 per cent, in line with a national imperative to bolster the real economy and promote cutting-edge technology.
The move would make Shanghai one of the first major Chinese cities to include a specific goal for stabilising the manufacturing sector in its next five-year plan, and would run concurrently with a broader campaign to win the city recognition as a fully-fledged global financial centre by 2035.
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The latter goal was reaffirmed in a document released in June by the Communist Party’s Central Financial Commission, a party organ headed by Premier Li Qiang that oversees China’s vast financial holdings.
“Shanghai officials are resolved to avoid the fate of economic hollowing out and the exodus of industrial enterprises, a phenomenon prevalent among some global cities as they develop into international financial hubs,” said Fu Weigang, president of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law think tank.
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“Shanghai aims to have two legs of balanced growth: a competitive services sector like finance plus advanced manufacturing, to make the economy more resilient.