Global Partners Shared Strength of Pudong New Area

21世纪经济报道记者吴斌 上海报道

The parallel session of the 7th Hongqiao International Economic Forum (HQF)—Pudong and the World: High-Standard Institutional Opening-up For New Development Opportunities was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) on November 6, 2024. The session was hosted by Shanghai Municipal People's Government and Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, and organized by Pudong New Area People's Government.

A promotion event was held before the parallel session. Global partners including Ernst & Young, Kearney Management Consultants, Cushman & Wakefield, and Zhong Lun Law Firm shared Pudong’s strength in sci-tech innovation, finance, headquarters economy, business environment, and modern urban development from a third party’s perspective, so as to increase the visibility of Pudong as a district known for collaborative growth.

The headquarters economy has been providing a strong boost to the development of Pudong and Shanghai. In phase 1.0, the main purpose of the headquarters economy was to attract multinational corporations and large-scale enterprises, and in phase 2.0, it was more focused on enhancing the agglomeration effect and the quality of development. Patricia Xia, EY China Central Managing Partner, finds Pudong headquarters economy is moving steadily towards phase 3.0 nowadays, which is to build a high-level headquarters ecosystem with new quality productive forces, and to enhance the core competitiveness of Pudong headquarters economy through policy cultivation, continuous empowerment and collaborative innovation.

The formation of a headquarters economy ecosystem starts with the incubation and cultivation of headquarters enterprises. In order to help enterprises grow better, Pudong has launched a series of cultivation programs, such as the Global Operator Program (GOP) and the Gathering of International Economic Organizations Program (GOC), taking advantage of its system innovation. “Through the implementation of the above mentioned programs and the continuous support of Pudong Headquarters Service Center, the resources of global enterprises and international economic organizations are gathered in Pudong. At the same time, they help enterprises to optimize financial connectivity and attract talents, thus laying a solid foundation for upgrading the capacity of headquarters and expanding their global influence, ” Patricia Xia said.

Kearney Management Consultants is a century-old management consulting firm founded in 1926 and Pudong New Area is also the location of its Greater China headquarters. Sherri He, managing director of Kearney’s Greater China Unit, took an example that the Pudong New Area government released its Group Open Innovation (GOI) plan, which has gathered 103 leading enterprises, and each GOI has empowered more than 5,000 small and medium-sized enterprises of various types through opening up and sharing space, incubation and cultivation, technological cooperation, investment support, and building an ecosystem.  

In another of Kearney's much-anticipated annual assessments, the Global Cities Report, Shanghai rose to the 8th place globally in the newly released 2024 annual report, its best ranking ever. Pudong New Area accounts for 23% of Shanghai's population and 34% of its economic contribution, so it is the top contributing urban area to Shanghai's improved ranking.

Kelvin Li, Managing Director of East China of Cushman & Wakefield, introduced the audience to the open, innovative and sustainable Pudong New Area. “When it comes to modern cities, we’ll first think of cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong, which are at the forefront in terms of economic volume and urban functions, and Shanghai is accelerating its development into a modern socialist international metropolis with world influence,” he emphasized.

The Shanghai office of Zhong Lun Law Firm was established in Lujiazui, Pudong in 2001 when China joined the WTO. Over the past 23 years, Zhong Lun Law Firm has achieved a leapfrog development with a 30-fold increase in the number of people and a 100-fold increase in revenue. Kong Wei, Equity Partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm, said the achievements came on the back of the reform and opening-up policy, as well as on Pudong's superior geographical location, policy environment and gathering of talents.

After more than 30 years of efforts in financial reform and innovation and opening up to the outside world, Pudong New Area has created the “Pudong Model” on the core area of the international financial center. It shines not only at the data level, such as the absolute value added by the financial industry, growth rate, and GDP share, but also in terms of the number of infrastructure and institutions, such as the completeness of the financial factor market, the concentration of financial institutions, and the proportion of foreign-funded institutions among financial institutions.

Standing on a new historical starting point, Kelvin Li believes Pudong New Area will continue to uphold the development concepts of reform and opening-up, as well as pioneering innovations, continuously optimize urban functions, improve urban quality and support leading areas construction.